n***a.    I    *^_  ff 


fpre  historic  Hmerica, 

Vol.  MI. 


ZTbe  /IDounfc  JBuilDers. 

Hnimal  JEffisies- 
Ube  Cliff  Dwellers, 
anfc  Symbols. 
IRelics. 
of  Hrcbitecture. 


THE 


CLIFF   DWELLERS 


AND 


PUEBLOS 


BY 


REV    STKPKKN  DEN1SON   PEET,  PH.  D., 

Member  of  American  Antiquarian  Society;  American  Historical  Society 

New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Society;  Fellow  American 

Association  Ad  of  Science  ;  Cor.  Member  American  Oriental  Society  ; 

Numismatic  Society  of  New  York;   Victoria  Instittite  ;  Society 

Biblical  Archceology  ;  Davenport\Academv  of  Science  ;  also, 

Editor  of  American  Antiquarian  and  Oriental  Journal. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


CHICAGO: 

OFFICE    OF    THK    AMERICAN    ANTIQUARIAN. 
1899. 


COPYRIGHTED    BY   STEPHEN    D.   PEET.- 
1899. 


DEDICATED 

TO 

WILLIAM  H.  HOLMES, 

IN     HONOR    OF    HIS    WONDERFUL    SKILL    IN     DESCRIBING    AND     DEPICTING 

THE    CLIFF-DWELLINGS    OF   THE    MANGOS   CANYON,   AND   AS   A   TOKEN 

OF    RESPECT    FOR    HIS    UNIFORM    COURTESY   AND   KINDNESS. 

BY  HIS   SINCERE  FRIEND, 

STEPHEN    D.    PEET. 


JM365029 


PREFACE. 


mysterious  people  called  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  have 
been  for  many  years  the  objects  of  much  curiosity,  and 
are  still  regarded  with  great  interest.  Various  parties  have 
entered  the  region  where  their  works  and  relics  were  discov 
ered;  some  of  whom  have  written  interesting  accounts  of  their 
own  explorations,  and  two  or  three  have  published  books  upon 
the  fubject.  As  a  result,  the  mystery  surrounding  them,  has 
been  to  some  degree  dispelled;  so  that  they  can  no  longer  be 
regarded  as  so  obscure  and  strange  a  people,  as  they  once  were. 

The  most  of  the  parties  who  have  entered  the  field  have 
come  to  the  conclusion,  that  they  were  the  same  people  as 
those  who  are  known  under  the  name  of  the  Pueblos,  and  that 
they  practiced  a  very  similar  architecture;  the  main  difference 
between  them,  consisting  in  the  fact,  that  they  were  situated 
upon  the  borders  of  the  Pueblo  territory  and  were  here  subject 
to  the  attacks  of  the  Wild  Tribes,  which  have  so  long  infested 
the  region. 

The  author  of  this  book,  who  is  the  editor  of  the  American 
Antiquarian,  has  taken  this  as  his  clew,  and  so  has  used  a 
double  title.  He  has  given  descriptions,  not  merely  of  the 
cliff-dwellings  and  their  local  surroundings  and  history,  but  of 
their  distribution  and  varied  relations.  His  position  is,  that 
the  cliff-dwellings  were  permanent  abodes,  but  were  built  at 
different  periods;  some  of  them  at  a  very  ancient  date;  others 
at  a  period  which  was  not  very  long  before  the  discovery  of 
America. 

The  development  of  the  Pueblo  art  and  architecture  was 
•entirely  in  the  prehistoric  period,  and  represents  the  progress 


x.  PREFACE. 

which  was  made  during  that  period,  especially  in  that  part  of  it 
which  was  called  the  Stone  Age 

The  influence  of  environment  is  recognized,  but  as  attended 
by  the  influence  of  an  ethnic  origin,  which  at  present  is  some 
what  uncertain.  The  subject  of  languages  is  not  entered 
upon;  even  their  myths  and  symbols  have  been  left  to  another 
work. 

The  author  has  given  several  years  of  close  study  to  the 
book,  and  has  written  the  chapters  at  intervals.  By  this  means 
he  has  been  able  to  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  discovery , 
and  to  give  the  results  of  the  latest  explorations.  In  present 
ing  the  volume  to  the  public,  he  would  make  acknowledgment 
of  the  assistance  which  he  has  derived  from  reading  the  reports 
of  all  of  the  parties  who  have  ever  entered  the  field,  beginning 
first  with  the  early  Spanish  explorers;  taking  next  the  early 
American  explorers,  and  continuing  to  draw  from  the  reports 
and  descriptions  which  have  been  written  by  every  party  which 
has  ever  visited  the  region,  including  those  who  have  written 
for  the  popular  magazines  and  for  the  newspapers.  The  names 
of  the  writers  are  given  in  the  book,  and  a  few,  who  have  never 
written  anything  for  publication,  have  been  mentioned,  especi 
ally  those  who  are  dwelling  in  the  region  and  are  familiar  with 
the  works  and  ruins  in  their  own  locality.  Thanks  are  due  to 
Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes  and  Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin;  to  the  Chief  of  the 
Ethnological  Bureau,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Santa  F6  Rail 
road,  and  to  Flood  &  Vincent,  for  the  use  of  cuts;  and,  also,  to 
Mr.  Lewis  W.  Gunckel,  for  the  use  of  photographs. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS   INHABITANTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  AGE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS 15 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS 31 

CHAPTER   IV. 
THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS 47 

CHAPTER  V. 
SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION 63 

CHAPTER   VI. 
HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS 81 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  CLIFF-PALACE  AND  ITS  SURROUNDINGS 97 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
DISTRIBUTION  OF  CLIFF-VILLAGES  AND  CAVE-TOWNS 113 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  CANYONS  OF  THE   MESA  VERDE.     133 

CHAPTER  X. 
THE  HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE  OF  THE  PUEBLOS 149 

CHAPTER    X.—  Continued. 
ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  PUEBLOS  COMPARED 169 

CHAPTER  XI. 
CLIFF- FORTRESSES —   203 

CHAPTER  XII. 
GREAT  HOUSES  AND   FORTRESSES 221 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
RELIGIOUS  LIFE  AND  WORKS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS 245 

CHAPTER    XIV. 
SOCIAL  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS 269 

CHAPTER  XV. 
RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS 293 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  PUEBLOS  AND  CLIFF-DWELLERS 317 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
PREHISTORIC  IRRIGATION 341 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 
THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PUEBLO  ARCHITECTURE 363 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD-TRIBES 375 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CHAPTER 


PAGE. 


Ruins  on  a  Mesa,                                              -  2 

Foot  Trail,  3 

Kiva  and  Pueblo,  3 
Mesa  and  Pueblo  at  Shupaulavi, 

Mesa  Cliff  Side,  6 

Sand  Rocks,  5 

Cloud  Effects,  10 

Mountain  and  Cloud,      -  10 

Mesa  Verde,  _       I2 

Geological  Relief  of  the  Great  Plateau,  15 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  Echo  Cave  on  the  San  Juan,  -        17 

Hohlefels  Cave  at  Wurtenberg,  20 

Bone  Cave  at  Gailenreuth,  Bavaria,  20 

Tower  in  Sardinia,  21 

Ancient  Wall  on  the  Mesa,  -       23 

Scenery  on  the  Mancos,  26 

Bad  Lands  in  Utah,  26 

CHAPTER     III. 

Ruins  at  the  Head  of  McElmo  Canon,  36 

Cliff  near  Fort  Wingate,  _       44 
To)  alone  Cliff,  near  Zuni, 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Zuni  with  Ta-ai-ya-la-na  in  the  Distance,   -  -        59 

CHAPTER   V 

Mountain  of  the  Holy  Cross,     -                                          .  64 

Hungo  Pavie  Restored.  . 


.     ILLUSTRATIONS.  xiii. 
CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE. 

The  First  High  Cliff-House  Discovered,  82 

Black  Tower  on  the  Mancos,  84 

Sixteen-Windowed  High  House,  91 

Section  and  Ground  Flan  of  the  High  Houses,  92 

Ruined  Tower  on  the  Mancos,  -  91 

Cliff  with  High  Houses,  93 

View  of  Cliffs  on  the  Mancos,  -  94 

Square  Tower  on  the  Mancos,  95 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Toltec  Gorge,      -  98 

Scenery  in  Marshall  Pas-,  -                                   .  99 

Cliff  Palace,  Front  View,  100 

Cliff  Palace,  Side  View,  101 

Lookout  in  the  Acowitz  Canon,  102 

Estufa  with  Air  Flue,  103 

Square  Tower  in  the  Cliff  Palace,  107 

Portion  of  the  Cliff  Palace,  107 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Cave  Houses  and  Storage  Cist,  123 

Cavate  House  and  Fireplace,  124 

Storage  Cists,  125 

Two-Story  Cliff  House — Ground  Plan — Doorway,  126 

Echo  Cave  on  the  San  Juan,      -  128 

Cliff  Village  in  Cold  Spring  Cave,  130 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Ruined  Pueblo,  139 

Tower  for  Defense,  140 

Estufa  with  Air  Flue,  141 

Remnants  of  Pottery,  142 
Cliff-Dwellers'  Sandals,                                                             -     144 

CHAPTER  X. 

Church  at  Tabira,  166 

View  of  Mashognavi  and  Shupaulavi,  174 

Ancient  Ruins  on  the  Animas,  -  176 
View  of  Casa  Grande,                                                                  -     177 

East  Wall  of  North  Room,  178 

North  Wall  of  North  Room,  179 

'South  Wall  of  North  Room,  180 

Cave  Houses  and  Ruined  Towers,  -  183 

Ancient  Pueblos  and  Ruined  Towers  on  the  McElmo,  184 

Battle  Rock  near  the  McElmo,  185 

Ruins  on  the  McElmo,  -  186 


xiv.  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

CHAPTER  X.— Continued, 

PAGE. 

Ancient  Wall  near  Montezuma  Canon,       -  -      188 

Ancient  Graves  on  the  Montezuma  Canon,  188 

Ruins  in  Montezuma  Canon,  193 

Ruins  upon  the  San  Juan,  193 

Two-Story  Cliff  House,  194 

Pueblo  on  the  Animas,  -  195 

Air  Passage  for  Estufa,  -     198 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Isolated  Cliff  near  Flagstaff,  268 

Cave  Fortress  near  San  Francisco  Mountain,  209 

Isolated  Fortress,  212 

Ruined  Pueblo  on  a  Mesa,  with  Outlook,  -  213 

To-wer  on  the  San  Juan,  216 

CHAPTER    XII. 

A  Typical  Great  House  at  Zuni,  -     222 

A  Typical  Solitary  House,  223 

Plat  of  Ruins  of  Casas  Grandes,  -     229 

Ruins  of  Casas  Grandes,  230 

Fortified  Pueblo  with  Outer  Wall  and  Interior  Court,       -     231 
Fortified  Pueblo  with  Drained  Court — Reservoir  Outside,     232 

Gateway  to  the  Court  at  Pccos,       -  233 

Manner  of  Constructing  Pueblo  Roofs,  234 

Ruined  Pueblo  on  the  Chaco,  -     235 

Map  of  a  Portion  of  Chaco  Canon,  237 

Specimens  of  Masonry  on  Chaco  Canon,  -  -     240 

Balconies  and  Doors,  241 

Doorways  of  a  Cliff  Dwelling,  -     242 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Montezuma,  246 

Transformed  Youths,  .     247 

Emblems  of  the  Mamzrau  Society,  249 

Estufa  with  Piers  in  Acowitz  Canon,  -     252 

Round  House  in  Acowitz  Canon,  253 

Plan  of  First  Cliff  Dwelling  in  Mancos  Canon,  -     254 

Cliff  Village  with  Estufa  and  Spring  in  a  Cave,           -  255 

Cliff  Village  without  Estufa,  .     255 

Floor  of  the  Kiva,  _            237 

Opening  to  the  Kiva,  -     258 

Ta-ai-ya-la-na,  the  Sacred  Mountain  of  the  Zunis,      -  260 

A  Navajo  God,                                                  -  .     26i 

A  Zuni  Sky  God,  .             .            2£2 

Zuni  Symbols,  .             .     26^ 

Zuni  Cloud  Basket,  .             .            263 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  xv. 
CHAPTER   XIII—  Continued. 

PAGE. 

•Cliff-Dwellers'  Symbols,  264 

Rock  Inscription  in  Arizona,     -  265 

Shrine  and  Sun  Symbols  near  Zuni,  267 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

Sichaumavi,  one  of  the  Seven  Modern  Tusayan  Villages,     271 

Court  at  Hano,  showing  Terraced  Houses,  etc.,    -  -     271 

Monarch's  Cave,  274 

Towers  on  Cliff  near  Butler's  Wa^h,  -     276 

Doors  and  Windows,  Spruce  Palace,     -  278 

Plastered  Pillars  in  Cliff  Palace,     -  279 

Decorated  Wall  in  Cliff  Palace,  281 

Cliff  Dwelling  in  Mummy  Cave,     -  282 

Canon  del  Muerto,  283 

White  House  in  the  Canon  de  Chelly,  284 

Ruined  Cliff  House  in  the  Mancos  Canon,       -  285 

Ruined  House  in  Chaco  Canon,      -  285 

Indian  Corn  Carrier,       -  286 

T-shaped  Door,  286 

Making  Bread,  291 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Stone  Axes  of  the  Pueblos,  -     295 

Stone  Fetiches  of  the  Pueblos,  296 

Region  Where  Cliff  Dwellings  were  first  Discovered,  298 

Pueblo  at  Epsom  Creek,  300 

Vase  from  the  Tusayan  Pueblos,     -  -     302 

Water  Jar,  303 

Metate  from  the  Zuni  Pueblo,  -     304 

Axe,  305 

Axes  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  -     306 

Mortar  and  Pestle,  307 
Arrow  Heads,  Fleshers  and  Grinder  from  Mancos  Canon,     308 

Wooden  Shovel,                                       %  -  309 

Rattle  and  Clapper,  310 

Drill  and  Bow,    -  311 

Pottery  Described  by  W.  H.  Holmes,  -     312 

Pottery  Described  by  W.  H.  Jackson,  -  313 

Jug  Made  from  Coiled  Ware,  -     314 

Pueblo  Woman  with  Pottery  Jar,  315 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Storage  Cist,  -     327 

Cliff  Village  on  Del  Muerto,     -  328 

Shrine  in  Shape  of  Human  Skull,  -  -     330 

Toad  Stool  Shrine,  331 


xvi.  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

CHAPTER   XV I—Continued. 

PAGEi 

Montezuma  Castle,  -  332 

The  Snake  Dance  at  Oraibi,  335 

The  Snake  Dance  at  Walpi,  335 

The  Snake  Dance,  338 

The  Snake  Dance,  339 

Carrier, 'Hugger,  and  Gatherer,  340 

CHAPTER  XVil. 

Pueblo  at  Oraibi,  344 

Storage  Cist  in  Cafion  del  Muerto,  345 

Ruined  Pueblo  on  the  McElmo,  346 

Casas  Grandes,  Sonora,  347 

Gymnasium  at  Chichen  Itza,  Guatemala,    -  348 

Sacred  Spring  at  Zuni,  -  350 

Reservoirs  at  Quivira,  352 

Irrigating  Ditch  on  the  Rio  Verde,  355 

Map  of  Ancient  Ditch,  360 

Section  of  the  Ditch,  360 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Storage  Cist,  368 

Cave  Front,  368 

Cavate  Lodges  on  the  Rio  Verde,  -  373 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  Navajo  Hogan,  showing  Posts,  Walls,   and   Fire-bed,     376 
Map  of  the  Pueblo  Tribes  and   Location  ot  the  Pueblos,     377 

Modern  Pueblo  Pottery,  378 

Modern  Pueblo  Pottery,  379 

Belts  Woven  by  the  Tarahumaris,  380 
Loom  Used  by  the  Tarahumaris,                                              -     381 

Conical  Tents  and  Walled  Pueblo,  386 

Indian  Portraits — Sioux,  Navajos,  and  Utes,  387 

Twin  Tower  in  Ruin  Canon,  ^gg 

Square  Tower  in  Ruin  Canon,  389 

Map  of  Ruin  Cafion,  3^0 

A  Mashongnavi  Woman  and  Mashongnavi   Girl,  391 

Navajo  Priest,  392 
Apache  Runners,                                                                           - 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  Xvii. 

FULL  PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado.     Frontispiece, 
Trail  Up  the  Canyon. 

Grand  Canyon  at  the  Foot  of  the  Toroweap. 
Pink  Cliffs,  Paunsagunt  Plateau. 
Vcrmillion  Cliffs  at  Kanab. 
Colorado  River. 
The  Brink  of  the  Inner  Gorge. 
Key  to  the  Panorama  from  Point  Sublime. 
Mukuntuweap  Canon. 
The  Great  Plateau,  looking  East. 
Scenery  on  the  Mancos. 
Bad  Lands  in  Utah. 
Valley  of  the  Rio  Grande. 
Hohlefels  Cave  at  Wurtenberg. 
Bone  Cave  at  Gailenreuth,  Bavaria. 
Tower  in  Sardinia. 
Brock  of  Mousa,  Shetland. 
Cliff  Houses  at  Walpi. 
Cliff  Dwellings  on  the  San  Juan. 
Cave  Houses  in  the  Shufmne. 
Cliff  Dwellings  on  the  Rio  de  Chelly. 
Cliff  Fortresses  on  the  Rio  Verde. 
View  From  Mt.  Taylor. 
The  Village  of  Walpi. 
Mogollon  Escarpment. 

Mashangnavi  with  Shupaulavi  in  the  Distance. 
Pa-run-u-weap  Canon. 
Cliff  near  Fort  Wingate. 
Toyalone  Cliff,  near  Zuni. 
Map  of  New  Spain,  after  Mercator,  1569. 
Ortelius'  Map  of  the  New  World,  1579. 
Map  of  the  Pueblo  Region. 

Scenery  in  the  Cheyenne  Canon  and  the  Rio  Grande. 
Casa  Grande  Ruin,  from  the  East. 
Zuni  with  Taaiyalana  in  the  Distance. 
The  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado. 
Sierra  Blanca  Mountain. 
The  Ruins  of  Pecos. 
Pueblo  Bonito  Restored. 
Ruined  Church  at  Pecos. 
Church  and  Pueblo  on  the  Rock  of  Acoma. 
Ruined  Pueblo  on  the  Chaco. 

Ruined  Pueblo  at  Pecos — Court,  Reservoir  and  Gateway. 
The  Estufa  at  Taos. 
Scene  on  the  Rio  de  Chelly. 
Pueblo  at  Taos — North  Building. 
Pueblo  at  Taos — South  Building. 
.Solitary  House  on  McElmo  Canon. 
Ruined  Towers  on  the  La  Plata,  Mancos,  and  McElmo 


xviii.  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Royal  Gorge  at  Toltec  Pass. 

View  Down  the  Cliff  Canon. 

Cliff  Palace— Front  View. 

Square  Tower  in  the  Cliff  Palace. 

Ruined  Rooms  of  the  Cliff  Palace. 

Cliff  Palace— Showing  Terraces  and  Foundations. 

Ruined  Tower  on  the  Colorado  River. 

Ruined  Village  on  the  San  Juan. 

Casa  Grande  in  Chihuahua. 

Ancient  Ruins  at  Chichen  Itza,  Guatemala. 

Cliff-Dwellers'  Village  in  Canon  de  Chelly. 

Cliff  Town  on  the  Rio  de  Chelly. 

Casa  Blanca— Cliff  Town  in  Canon  de  Chelly. 

Pictographs  on  Rocks  in  a  Cliff-Outlook. 

Cliff  Village  in  Sierra  Madre,  Mexico. 

Balloon-Shaped  Storage  Cist. 

Sand-Stone  Columns  at  Walpi. 

Trail  Up  the  Mesa  at  Walpi. 

Taos—  Showing  Wall,  Balconies,  Terraces,  and  Roof. 

Hano — One  of  the  Tusayan  Pueblos. 

Interior  of  a  Modern  Tusayan  Room. 

Interior  of  a  Modern  Zuni  Room. 

Modern  Form  of  Roofs  or  Terraces  at  Oraibi. 

A  Tusayan  Pueblo— Showing  Modern  Style  of  Wall. 

Pictographs  in  Shelter  Caves  ajid  on  the    Rocks. 

Pictographs  in  Arizona. 

San  Francisco  Mountain. 

Scene  in  the  Grand  Canon. 

The  Hidden  Trail  Among  the  Mountains. 

Cliff  House  in  Walnut  Canon. 

Houses  of  the  California  Indians. 

Houses  of  the  Mandans. 

Modern  Pueblo  with  Terraces  and  Ladders. 

Modern  Pueblo  with  Covered  Passage-ways. 

•Gardens  and  Farms  of  the  Zuni's. 

Corral  in  Pescado. 

Buffaloes — Portrayed  by  DeBry. 

Sichumovi— One  of  the  Tusayan  Villages. 

Court  at  Hano. 

House  Interior  at  Pueblo  Bonito. 

(Reservoir  in  Canon  de  Chelly. 

The  Modern  Pueblo  at  Jemez. 

'Old  Irrigation  Ditch  near  Verde— Looking  Westward. 

Old  Irrigation  Ditch  n^ar  Verde — Looking  Eastward. 

Ruined  Village  on  the  Rio  Verde. 

Boulder  Sites  on  the  Rio  Verde. 


TKA1L    ALONG   THE-     CANYON. 


THE  CLIFF  DWELLERS 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS. 

There  is  a  region  in  the  deep  interior  of  the  American  con 
tinent,  to  which  the  name  Great  Plateau  has  been  given.  The 
name  expresses  its  geological  character.  It  is,  however,  a 
region  which  furnishes  a  wonderful  field  to  archaeology,  and 
deserves  careful  study  on  this  account.  There  is  no  part  of 
our  great  continent  where  more  interesting  problems  are  pre 
sented  than  by  this.  These  problems  relate  not  merely  to  the 
physical  and  natural  history,  but  to  human  history  as  well.  In 
fact,  it  is  the  human  history  which  gives  the  chief  interest  to  it, 
as  that  history  is  totally  unlike  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

It  appears  that  a  portion  of  the  human  race  found  lodgment 
in  the  midst  of  these  grand  scenes  of  nature,  but  became  iso 
lated  by  reason  of  their  situation.  Here,  they  developed  a 
form  of  society  which  was  largely  the  result  of  the  environ 
ment,  but  which  culminated  in  a  type  of  art  and  architecture 
which  was  most  peculiar.  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  mys 
tery  thrown  around  the  people,  and  a  name  has  been  given 
to  them  which  starts  a  thousand  fancies — the  name  Cliff- 
Dwellers.  The  charm  of  this  name  does  not  come  merely 
from  the  fact  that  the  people  dwelt  so  high  up  among  the 
cliffs,  as  from  the  fact,  that  they  developed  so  high  a  civiliza 
tion  in  the  midst  of  the  cliffs. 

The  inquiry  naturally  arises,  whether  this  civilization  was 
altogether  the  result  of  environment,  or  was  owing  to  some 
other  influence.  There  are  differences  of.  opinion  on  this 
point,  as  some  maintain  that  the  Cliff-Dwellers  and  the  Pueblo 
tribes  were  like  a  molten  mass,  which  was  thrown  into  this 
gigantic  mould,  and  came  out  bearing  the  stamp,  as  thoroughly 
as  a  casting  does  that  which  is  found  in  any  ordinary  furnace. 
Others,  however,  ascribe  the  condition  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  to 
their  remarkable  intelligence,  combined  with  the  influence  of 
inheritance  and  employment.  It  is  probable  that  all  these  had 
their  effect,  but  as  the  first  (scenery)  has  been  made  so  promi 
nent,  we  shall  give  our  thoughts  to  this,  thus  making  it  a  back 
ground  to  the  picture  which  we  hope  to  draw  in  this  volume. 
We  do  not  believe  that  the  background  is  the  picture,  but  it  is 
essential  to  it,  and  is  always  designed  to  set  forth  the  picture 
more  clearly. 


2  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

We  propose  in  this  chapter  to  furnish  descriptions  of  the 
Great  Plateau,  including  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado, 
and  other  features;  but,  in  doing  so,  shall  draw  largely  from 
the  writings  of  those  who  have  spent  time  in  exploring  and 
surveying,  but  whose  descriptions  are  buried  in  the  midst  of 
voluminous  reports  and  are  likely  to  be  forgotten.  It  has  long 
been  our  conviction  that  these  ought  to  be  brought  to  light. 

I.  We  shall  begin  with  a  description  of  the  topography  of 
the  entire  region,  and  shall  quote  largely  from  the  report  of  Mr. 
C.  E.  Dutton,  which  is  contained  in  the  Second  Annual  Report 
of  the  Geological  Survey.  He  says: 

For  convenience  of  geological  discussion,  Major  Powell  has  divided 
that  belt  of  country  which  lies  between  the  meridian  of  Denver,  Colorado, 
and  the  Pacific  into  provinces,  each  of  which  possesses  topographical  features 


RUINS   ON   A    MESA.* 

which  distinguish  it  from  the  others,  The  easternmost,  he  has  named  the 
Park  Province.  It  is  situa'ed  in  the  central  and  western  parts  of  Colorado 
and  extends  north  of  that  State  into  Wyoming,  and  south  of  it  into  New 
Mexico.  It  is  pre-eminently  a  mountain  region,  having  several  long  ranges 
of  mountains.  The  structure  and  forms  of  these  mountains  are  not  exactly 
similar  to  those  of  any  other  region,  but  possess  some  resemblance  to  the 
Alps. 

As  we  pass  westward  of  these  ranges  we  enter  a  region  having  a  very 
different  topography.  The  mountains  disappear  and  in  their  stead  we  find 
platforms  and  terraces,  nearly  or  quite  horizontal  on  their  summits  or  floors 
and  abruptly  terminated  by  long  lines  of  cliffs.  They  lie  at  greatly  vary 
ing  altitudes,  some  as  high  as  11,000  feet  above  the  sea,  others  no  higher 
than  5,000,  and  with  still  others  occupying  intermediate  levels.  Seldom 
does  the  surface  of  the  land  rise  into  conical  peaks,  or  into  long,  narrow- 
crested  ridges;  but  the  profiles  are  long,  horizontal  lines,  suddenly  dropping 
down  many  hundreds,  or  even  two  thousand,  feet  upon  another  flat  plain 


sy  °f  the  Santa  Fe  Railroad 


y  for  ma"y  of  the  cuts 


THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS. 


below.  This  region  has  been  very  appropriately  named  by  Major  Powell, 
the  Plateau  Province.  It  occupies  a  narrow  strip  of  western  New  Mexico, 
a  large  part  of  southern  Wyoming,  and  rather  more  than  half  of  Utah  and 
Arizona. 

West  of  the  Plateau  Province  is  the 
Great  Basin,  so  named  by  Fremont  because 
it  has  no  drainage  to  the  ocean.  Its  topo 
graphy  is  wholly  peculiar  and  bears  no 
resemblance  to  either  of  the  two  just  alluded 
to.  It  contains  a  large  number  of  ranges, 
all  of  which  are  very  narrow  and  short,  and 
separated  from  each  other  by  wide  intervals 
of  smooth,  barren  plains.  The  mountains 
are  of  a  low  order  of  magnitude  for  the  most 
part,  though  some  of  the  ranges  and  peaks 
attain  considerable  dimensions.  Their  ap 
pearance  is  strikingly  different  from  the 
noble  and  picturesque  outlines  displayed  in 
Colorado.  They  are  jagged,  wild,  and  un 
graceful  in  their  aspect, and,  whether  viewed 
from  far  or  near,  repel  rather  than  invite  the 
imagination. 

The  Grand  Canyon  District  is  a  part  of 
the  Plateau  Province,  and  to  this  as  a  whole 
we  call  attention.  As  already  indicated,  it 
lies  between  the  Park  and  Basin  Provinces, 
and  its  topography  differs  in  the  extreme 
from  those  found  on  either  side  of  it.  It  is 
the  land  of  tables  and  terraces,  of  buttes 
and  mesas,  of  cliffs  and  canyons.  Standing 
upon  any  elevated  spot  where  the  radius  of 
vision  reaches  out  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles, 
the  observer  beholds  a  strange  spectacle. 
The  most  conspicuous  objects  are  the  lofty  and  brilliantly-colored  cliffs. 
They  stretch  their  tortuous  courses  across  the  land  in  all  directions,  yet  not 
without  system;  here  throwing  out  a  great  promontory,  there  receding  in  a 
a  deep  bay,  and  continuing  on  and  on  until  they  sink  below  the  horizon,  or 
swing  behind  some  loftier  mass,  or  fade  out  in  the  distant  haze.  Each  cliff 

marks  the  boundary  of  a  geographi 
cal  terrace  and  marks,  also,  the  ter 
mination  of  some  geological  series 
of  strata,  the  edges  of  which  are  ex 
posed,  like  courses  of  masonry,  in 
the  scarp-walls  of  the  palisades.  In 
the  distance  may  be  seen  the  spec 
tacle  of  cliff  rising  above  and  beyond 
cliff,  like  a  colossal  stairway  leading 
from  the  torrid  plains  below  to  the 
domain  of  the  clouds  above.  Very 
wonderful  at  times  is  the  sculpture 
of  these  majestic  walls.  There  is  an 
architectural  style  about  it,  which 
must  be  seen  to  be  appreciated.  The 
resemblances  to  architecture  are  not 
fanciful  or  metaphorical,  but  are  real 
and  vivid;  so  much  so  that  the  unac 
customed  tourist  often  feels  a  vague 
skepticism  whether  these  are  truly 
the  works  of  the  blind  forces  of 
nature,  or  some  intelligence  akin  to 
human,  but  far  mightier;  and  even  the  experienced  explorer  is  sometimes 
brought  to  a  sudden  halt  and  filled  with  amazement  by  the  apparition  of 
forms  as  definite  and  eloquent  as  those  of  art.  Each  geological  formation 


FOOT   TRAIL. 


KIVA    AND 


4  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

exhibits  in  its  cliffs  a  distinct  style  of  architecture,  which  is  not  reproduced 
among  the  cliffs  of  other  formations,  and  these  several  styles  differ  as  much 
as  those  which  are  cultivated  by  different  races  of  men. 

The  character  which  appeals  most  strongly  to  the  ey«  is  the  coloring. 
The  gentle  tints  of  an  eastern  landscape,  the  pale  blue  of  distant  moun 
tains,  the  green  of  vernal  or  summer  vegetation,  the  subdued  colors  of 
hillside  and  meadow,  are  whollv  wanting  here,  and  in  their  place  we  behold 
belts  of  brilliant  red,  yellow,  and  white,  which  are  intensihed  rather  than 
alleviated  by  alternating  belts  of  gray.  Like  the  architecture,  the  colors 
are  characteristic  of  the  geological  formations,  each  series  having  its  own 
group  and  range  of  colors. 

The  Plateau  country  is  also  the  land  of  canyons,  in  the  strictest  mean 
ing  of  that  term.  Gorges,  ravines,  and  canadas  are  found,  and  are  more  or 
less  impressive  in  every  high  region;  and  in  the  vernacular  of  the  West  all 
such  features  are  termed  canyons,  indiscriminately.  But  those  long,  narrow, 
profound  trenches  in  the  rocks,  with  inaccessible  walls,  to  which  the  early 
Spaniards  gave  the  name  cayon,  or  canyon,  are  seldom  found  outside  the 
plateaus.  There  they  are  innumerable  and  the  almost  universal  form  of 
drainage  channels.  Large  areas  of  Plateau  country  are  so  minutely  dis 
sected  by  them,  that  they  are  almost  inaccessible,  and  some  limited,  though 
considerable,  tracts  seem  wholly  so.  Almost  everywhere  the  drainage 
channels  are  cut  from  500  to  3,000  feet  below  the  general  platform  of  the 
immediate  country.  They  are  abundantly  ramified  and  every  branch  is  a 


MESA  AND  PUEBLO  AT  SHUPAULAVI. 

canyon.  The  explorer  on  the  mesas  above  must  take  heed  to  his  course  in 
such  a  place,  for  once  caught  in  the  labyrinth  of  interlacing  side-gorges,  he 
must  possess  rare  craft  and  self-control  to  extricate  himself.  All  these 
drainage  channels  lead  down  to  one  great  trunk  channel,  cleft  through  the 
heart  of  the  Plateau  Province  for  eight  hundred  miles— the  chasm  of  the 
Colorado,  and  the  canyons *of  its  principal  fork,  thetGreen  River.  By  far 
the  greater  part  of  these  tributaries  are  dry  during  most  of  the  vear,  and 
carry  water  only  at  the  melting  of  the  snow,  and  during  the  brief  periods 
of  the  autumnal  and  vernal  rains.  A  very  few  hold  small,  perennial  streams, 
coming  from  the  highlands  around  the  borders  of  the  province,  and  swell 
ing  to  mad  torrents  in  times  of  spasmodic  floods. 

The  region  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  desert  of  the  barrenest  kind.  At 
levels  below  7,000  feet  the  heat  is  intense  and  the  air  is  dry  in  the  extreme. 
The  vegetation  is  very  scanty,  and  even  the  ubiquitous  sage  (Artemesia 
tridentatd] i  is  sparse  and  stunted.  Here  and  there  the  cedar  (Juniperus 
occidentalis\  is  seen,  the  hardest  of  arborescent  plants,  but  it  is  dwarfed  and 
sickly  and  seeks  the  shadiest  nooks.  At  higher  levels  the  vegetation 
becomes  more  abundant  and  varied.  Above  8,000  feet  the  plateaus  are 
forest-clad  and  the  ground  is  carpeted  with  rank  grass  and  an  exuberant 
growth  of  beautiful  summer  flowers.  The  summers  there  are  cool  and 
moist;  the  winters  severe  and  attended  with  heavy  showfall. 

The  Plateau  Province  is  naturally  divided  into  two  portions,  a  northern 
and  a  southern.  The  dividing  barrier  is  the  Uinta  range.  This  fine  moun- 


THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS.  5 

tain  platform  is,  in  one  respect,  an  anomaly  among  western  mountain 
ranges.  It  is  the  only  important  one  which  trends  east  and  west.  Starting 
trom  the  eastern  flank  of  the  Wasatch,  the  Uintas  project  eastward  more 
than  150  miles,  and  nearly  join  perpendicularly  the  Park  ranges  of  Colorado. 
Of  the  two  portions  into  which  the  Plateau  Province  is  thus  divided,  the 
southern  is  much  larger.  Both  have  in  common  the  plateau  features;  their 
topographies,  climates,  and  physical  features  in  general,  are  of  similar 
types,  and  their  geological  features  and  history  appear  to  be  closely  related ; 
out  each  has,  also,  its  peculiarities.  The  northern  portion  is  an  interesting 
and  already  celebrated  field  for  the  study  of  Cretaceous  strata  and  the 
Tertiary  lacustrine  beds.  The  subjects  which  it  presents  to  the  geologist 
are  most  notably  those  which  are  embraced  under  the  department  of  strati 
graphy — the  study  of  the  succession  of  strata  and  co-related  succession  of 
organic  life.  Otherwise  the  region  is  tame,  monotonous,  and  unattractive. 
The  southern  portion,  while  presenting  an  abundance  of  material  for 
stratigraphical  study,  and  in  this  respect  fully  rivalling,  and,  perhaps,  sur 
passing,  the  northern  portion,  also  abounds  in  the  grandest  and  most 
fascinating  themes  for  the  student  of  physical  geography.  The  northern 
portion  is  almost  trivial  as  to  the  scenery,  while  the  southern  is  the  sublimest 
on  the  continent.  With  the  former  we  shall  have  little  to  do;  it  is  the  latter 
which  claims  here  our  exclusive  attention. 

The  southern  part  of  the  Plateau  Province  may  be  regarded  as  a  vast 
basin  everywhere  bounded  by  highlands,  except  at  the  southwest,  where  it 
opens  wide  and  passes  suddenly  into  a  region  having  all  the  characteristics 
of  the  Great  Basin  of  Nevada.  The  northern  half  of  its  eastern  rim  con 
sists  of  the  Park  ranges  of  Colorado.  Its  northern  rim  lies  upon  the  slopes 
of  the  Uintas.  At  the  point  where  the  Uintas  join  the  Wasatch,  the  bound 
ary  turns  sharply  to  the  south,  and  for  200  miles  the  High  Plateaus  of  Utah 
constitute  the  elevated  western  margin  of  the  province. 

The  Grand  Canyon  District — the  region  draining  into  the  Grand  and 
Marble  Canyons— is  the  westernmost  division  of  the  Plateau  Province. 
Nearly  four-fifths  of  its  area  are  situated  in  northern  Arizona.  The 
remaining  fifth  is  situated  in  southern  Utah.  Let  us  turn  our  attention  for 
a  moment  to  the  portion  situated  in  Utah.  It  consists  of  a  series  of  ter 
races  quite  similar  to  those  we  have  already  seen  descending  from  the  sum 
mit  of  the  Wasatch  Plateau  to  the  San  Rafael  Swell,  like  a  colossal  stair 
way.  At  the  top  of  the  stairs  are  the  broad  and  lofty  platforms  of  the 
High  Plateaus  of  Utah;  at  the  bottom  is  the  inner  expanse  of  the  Grand 
Canyon  District.  The  summits  of  the  High  Plateau  are  beds  of  the  Lower 
Eocene  Age.  Descending  southward,  we  cross,  step  by  step,  the  terminal 
edges  of  the  entire  Mesozoic  system  and  the  Permian,  and  when  we  reach 
the  inner  floor  of  the  Grand  Canyon  District  we  find  that  it  consists  of  the 
summit  beds  of  the  carboniferous  series,  patched  here  and  there  with  fad 
ing  remnants  of  the  Permian. 

Thus  we  may  note  that  the  northern  and  es.stern  boundaries  of  the 
Grand  Canyon  District  are  cliff-bound  terraces.  Crossing  the  district, 
either  longitudinally  from  north  to  south,  or  transversely  from  east  to  west, 
we  find  as  we  approach  the  southern  or  western  border,  that  the  carbonifer 
ous  platform  ascends  very  gradually,  and  at  last  it  terminates  in  a  giant 
wall,  plunging  down  thousands  of  feet  to  the  platform  of  a  country  quite 
similar  to  the  Great  Basin  of  Nevada.  All  the  features  are  repeated  and 
the  desolation  intensified  in  the  dreadful  region  which  is  west  and  south  of 
the  Grand  Canyon  region. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  birds-eye  view  of  the  topography  of 
this  region,  written  by  one  who  is  familiar  with  every  part  of  it. 
We  can  see  from  the  description  that  the  Great  Plateau  was 
isolated  from  every  other  part  of  the  continent.  It  was 
surrounded  by  higher  mountains,  and  beyond  the  mountains 
by  wide  valleys — the  Great  Mississippi  Valley  on  the  east,  the 
valley  of  the  Snake  River  on  the  north,  the  valley,  which  is 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


MESA     CLIFF-SIDE. 


called  the   Great  Basin,  on  the  west,  and   the  valley  of  the 
Lower  Colorado  on  the  south. 

Dana,  the  celebrated  geologist,  says  that  a  continent  is 
characterized  by  a  great  valley  situated  between  two  or  more 
ranges  of  mountains.  According  to  this  definition  we  may 
conclude  that  the  Great  Plateau  is  a  continent  above  a 
continent,  and  may  well  be  called  the  Air  Continent;  for 
it  is  lifted  high  up  in 
the  air,  but  is  at  the 
same  time  surrounded 
by  higher  peaks,  and 
beyond  the  peaks  are 
the  great  depths  of 
air,  which  surround  it 
as  thoroughly  as  did 
once  the  roll  ing 
depths  of  water, 
which  laved  the  shore 
in  the  ancient  period 
when  the  mountains 
were  new. 

II.  We  turn,  then, 
to  the  scenery.  Of 
this  we  have  some  very  graphic  descriptions.  These  show  the 
impressions  which  are  made  upon  educated  minds,  but  at  the 
same  time  illustrate  the  necessity  of  coming  into  sympathy 

with  the  scene  by  long  dwell 
ing  amid  it,  and  becoming 
familiar  with  its  changes. 

The  following  description 
is  from  Mr.  C.  E.  Button's 
report: 

The  Grand  Canyon  of  the 
Colorado  is  a  great  innovation  in 
modern  ideas  of  scenery,  and  in  our 
conceptions  of  the  grandeur, 
beauty,  and  power  of  nature.  As 
with  all  great  innovations,  it  is  not 
—~  _^  to  be  comprehended  in  a  day  or  a 

j^^ffffSlfff^iii^'^  wrrk,  nor  even  in  a  month.  It 
JM  must  be  dwelt  upon  and  studied, 
and  the  study  must  comprise  the 
slow  acquisition  of  the  meaning  and 
spirit  ot  that  marvelous  scenery 
which  characterizes  the  Plateau 
country,  and  of  which  the  great 
chasm  is  the  superlative  manifesta 
tion.  The  study  and  mastery  of  the  influences  of  that  class  of  scenery  and 
its  appreciation,  is  a  culture,  requiring  time,  patience,  and  long  familiarity, 
tor  its  consummation.  The  lover  of  nature,  whose  perceptions  have  been 
trained  in  the  Alps,  in  Italy,  Germany,  or  New  England;  in  the  Appalach 
ians  or  Cordilleras,  in  Scotland  or  Colorado,  would  enter  this  strange  region 
with  a  shock,  and  dwell  there  for  a  time  with  a  sense  of  oppression,  and, 
perhaps  with  horror.  Whatsoever  things  he  had  learned  to  regard  as 


SANL)     ROCKS. 


^m  m-^ 

;^n::f!,-i 


THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS.  7 

beautiful  and  noble,  he  would  seldom  or  never  see,  and  whatsoever  he 
might  see  would  appear  to  him  as  anything  but  beautiful  and  noble. 
Whatsoever  might  be  bold  and  striking,  would  at  first  seem  only  grotesque. 
The  colors  would  be  the  very  ones  he  had  learned  to  shun,  as  tawdy  and 
bizarre.  The  tones  and  shades  modest  and  tender,  subdued  yet  rich,  in 
which  his  fancy  had  always  taken. special  delight,  would  be  the  ones  which 
are  conspicuously  absent.  But  time  would  bring  a  gradual  change.  Some 
day  he  would  suddenly  become  conscious  that  outlines,  which  at  first  seemed 
harsh  and  trivial,  have  grace  and  meaning;  that  forms,  which  seemed  gro 
tesque,  are  full  of  dignity;  that  magnitudes,  which  had  added  enormity  to 
coarseness,  have  become  replete  with  strength  and  even  majesty;  that 
colors,  which  had  been  esteemed  unrefined,  immodest,  and  glaring,  are  as 
expressive,  tender  changeful,  and  capacious  of  effects  as  any  others. 

Those  who  have  long  and  carefully  studied  the  Grand  Canyon  of  the 
Colorado  do  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  pronounce  it  by  far  the  most  sub 
lime  of  all  earthly  spectacles.  If  its  sublimity  consisted  only  in  its  dim  n- 
sions,  it  could  be  sufficiently  set  forth  in  a  single  sentence.  It  is  more  than 
200  miles  long,  from  five  to  twelve  miles  wide,  and  from  5,000  to  6,000  feet 
deep.  There  are  in  the  world  valleys  which  are  longer,  and  a  few  which 
are  deeper.  There  are  valleys  flanked  by  summits  loftier  than  the  palisades 
of  the  Kaibab.  Still,  the  Grand  Canyon  is  the  sublimest  thing  on  earth. 

The  Plateau  country  abounds  in  close  resemblances  to  natural  carving 
of  human  architecture,  and  nowhere  are  these  more  conspicuous  or  more 
perfect  than  in  the  scarps  which  terminate  the  summits  of  the  Markagunt 
and  Paunsagunt  Plateaus.  Their  co!or  varies  with  the  light  and  atmo 
sphere.  It  is  a  pale  red  under  ordinary  lights,  but  as  the  sun  sinks  towards 
the  horizon,  it  deepens  into  a  rich  rose  color)  which  is  seen  in  no  other  rocks 
and  is  beautiful  beyond  description.  The  cliffs  are  of  the  Lower  Eocene 
Age,  consisting  of  lake  marls  very  uniformly  bedded.  At  the  base  of  this 
series  the  beds  are  coarser,  and  contain  well-marked,  brackish-water  fossils; 
but  as  we  ascend  to  the  higher  beds  we  find  the  great  mass  of  the  Eocene 
to  consist  of  fresh-water  deposits. 

The  Trias  is  in  most  places  separated  from  the  Jura  by  a  purely  pro 
visional  horizon,  which  marks  a  change  in  the  lithological  aspect  of  the 
strata,  and  in  the  grouping  and  habit  of  the  series.  Sometimes  the  passage 
from  one  to  the  other  is  obscured,  but  more  frequently  it  is  abrupt.  The 
Jurassic  sandstone  is  without  a  likeness  in  any  other  formation  and  the 
sandstone  of  the  Trias  can  ordinarily  be  distinguished  from  it  miles  away. 
One  of  the  most  conspicuous  distinctions  is  the  color,  and  it  is  a  never- 
failing  distinction.  The  Jurassic  is  white;  the  Trias  is  flaming  red. 

Superlative  cloud  effects,  common  enough  in  other  countries,  are 
lamentably  infrequent  here;  but  when  they  do  come,  their  value  is  beyond 
measure.  During  the  long,  hot  summer  days,  when  the  sun  is  high,  the 
phenomenal  features  of  the  scenery  are  robbed  of  most  of  their  grandeur, 
and  can  not,  or  do  not,  wholly  reveal  to  the  observer  the  realities  which 
render  them  so  instructive  and  interesting.  There  are  few  middle  tones  of 
light  and  shade.  The  effects  of  foreshortening  are  excessive,  almost 
beyond  belief,  and  produce  the  strangest  deceptions.  Masses  which  are 
widely  separated  seem  to  be  superposed  or  continuous.  Lines  and  surfaces, 
which  extend  towards  us  at  an  acute  angle  with  the  radius  of  vision,  are 
warped  around  until  they  seem  to  cross  it  at  a  right  angle.  Grand  fronts, 
which  ought  to  show  depth  and  varying  distance,  become  flat  and  are 
troubled  with  false  perspectives.  Proportions  which  are  full  of  grace  and 
meaning  are  distorted  and  belied.  During  the  midday  hours  the  cliffs 
seem  to  wilt  and  droop,  as  if  retracting  their  grandeur  to  hide  it  from  the 
merciless  radiance  of  the  sun,  whose  every  effulgence  flouts  them.  Even 
the  colors  are  ruined.  The  glaring  face  of  the  wall,  where  the  light  falls 
upon  it,  wears  a  scorched,  over-baked,  discharged  look;  and  where  the 
dense  black  shadows  are  thrown— for  there  are  no  middle  shades— the 
magical  haze  of  the  desert  shines  forth  with  a  weird,  metallic  glow,  which 
has  no  color  in  it.  But,  as  the  sun  declines,  there  comes  a  revival.  The 
half-tones  at  length  appear,  bringing  into  relief  the  component  masses; 
the  amphitheatres  recede  into  suggestive  distances;  the  salients  silently 


8  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

advance  towards  us;  the  distorted  lines  range  themselves  into  true  perspec 
tive  ;|the  detormed  curves  come  back  to  their  proper  sweep;  the  angles 
grow  clean  and  sharp;  and  the  whole  cliff  arouses  from  lethargy  and  erects 
itself  in  grandeur  and  power,  as  if  conscious  of  its  own  majesty.  Back, 
also,  come  the  colors,  and  as  the  sun  is  about  to  sink  they  glow  with  an  in 
tense  orange-vermillion,  that  seems  to  be  an  intrinsic  lustre  emanating  from 
the  rocks  themselves.  But  the  great  gala-days  of  the  cliffs  are  those  when 

sunshine  and  storm  are 
waging  an  even  battle; 
when  the  massive  banks 
of  clouds  send  their  white 
diffuse  lights  into  the  dark 
places  and  tone  down 
the  intense  glare  of  the 
direct  rays;  when  they 
roll  over  the  summits  in 
statelv  procession,  wrap 
ping  them  in  vapor  and  re 
vealing  cloud-girt  masses 
here  and  there  through 
wide  rifts.  Then  the  truth 
appears  and  all  decep 
tions  are  exposed.  Their 
real  grandeur,  their  true 
forms,  and  a  just  sense 

of  their  relations  are  at  last  fairly  presented,  so  that  the  mind  can  grasp 
them.  And  they  are  very  grand — even  sublime.  There  is  no  need,  as  we 
look  upon  them,  ot  fancy  to  heighten  the  picture,  nor  of  metaphor  to 
present  it.  The  simple  truth  is  quite  enough.  I  never  before  had  a  realiz 
ing  sense  of  a  cliff  1,800  to  2,000  feet  high.  I  think  I  have  a  definite  and 
abiding  one  at  present. 

But  though  the  inherent  colors  are  less  intense  than  some  others,  yet, 
under  the  quickening  influence  of  the  atmosphere,  they  produce  effects  to 
which  all  others  are  far  inferior.  And  here  language  fails  and  description 
becomes  impossible.  Not  only  are  their  qualities  exceedingly  subtle,  but 
they  have  little  counter 
part  in  common  experi 
ence.  If  such  are  pre 
sented  elsewhere,  they  are 
presented  so  feebly  and 
obscurely  that  only  the 
most  discriminating  and 
closest  observers  of  nature 
ever  seize  them,  and  they 
so  imperfectly  that  their 
ideas  of  them  are  vague 
and  but  half  real.  There 
are  no  concrete  notions 
furnished  in  experience, 
upon  which  a  conception 
of  these  color  effects  and 
optical  delusions  can  be 

constructed     and     made    

intelligible.    A  perpetual    '  MOUNTAIN  AND  CLOUD 

glamour    envelopes     the 

landscape.  Things  are  not  what  they  seem,  and  the  perceptions  can  not 
tell  us  what  they  are.  It  is  not  probable  that  these  effects  are  different  in 
kind  in  the  Grand  Canyon  from  what  they  are  in  other  portions  of  the 
Plateau  country.  But  the  difference  in  degree  is  immense,  and  being 
greatly  magnified  and  intensified,  many  characteristics  become  palpable 
which  elsewhere  elude  the  closest  observation. 

In  truth,  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  landscape  is  constantly  varying, 
and  the  changes  in  its  aspect  are  very  great.     It  is  never  the  same,  even 


THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS.  9 

from  day  to  day,  or  even  from  hour  to  hour.  In  the  early  morning  its  mood 
and  subjective  influences  are  usually  calmer  and  more  full  of  repose  than 
at  other  times,  but  as  the  sun  rises  higher  the  whole  scene  is  so  changed 
that  we  cannot  recall  our  first  impressions.  Every  passing  cloud,  every 
change  in  the  position  of  the  sun,  recasts  the  whole.  At  sunset  the  pageant 
closes  amid  splendors  that  seem  more  than  earthly.  The  direction  ot  the 
full  sunlight,  the  massing  of  the  shadows,  the  manner  in  which  the  side 
lights  are  thrown  in  from  the  clouds  determine  these  modulations,. and  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  picture  to  the  slightest  variations  is  very  wonderful. 

The  rocks  which  are  so  striking  in  their  form  and  size,  and 
which  bear  so  important  a  part  in  the  scenery,  are  not  all. 
There  are  colors  in  the  rocks  and  shadows  in  the  air  which  are 
as  important  as  these.  They  are  less  substantial,  but  they  add 
to  the  impression.  We  seem  to  be  in  dreamland  when  we  look 
upon  this  atmospheric  sea.  The  billows  roll,  perhaps,  at  our 
feet,  but  they  rise  also  above  our  heads.  We  are  like  the  one 
who  sails  through  the  air  in  his  dreams  and  puts  forth  his  hand 
to  catch  the  sun.  Clouds  above  and  clouds  below,  one  hardly 
realizes  that  his  feet  are  upon  substantial  rocks.  The  effect  of 
the  cloud  scenery,  and  of  the  color,  upon  the  mind  is  certainly 
very  great.  Of  this  Mr.  Button  also  speaks,  as  follows: 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  western  scenery  have,  no  doubt,  been  im 
pressed  with  the  peculiar  character  of  the  haze,  or  atmosphere  in  the  artistic 
sense  of  the  word,  and  have  noted  its  more  prominent  qualities.  When  the 
air  is  free  from  common  smoke  it  has  a  pale  blue  color,  which  is  quite  unlike 
the  neutral  gray  of  the  East.  It  is  always  apparently  more  dense  when 
we  look  towards  the  sun,  than  when  we  look  away  from  it,  and  this  differ 
ence  in  the  two  directions,  respectively,  is  a  maximum  near  sunrise  and 
sunset.  This  property  is  universal,  but  its  peculiarities  in  the  Plateau 
Province  become  conspicuous  when  the  strong,  rich  colors  of  the  rocks  are 
seen  through  it.  The  very  air  is  then  visible.  We  see  it  palpably,  as  a 
tenuous  fluid,  and  the  rocks  beyond  it  do  not  appear  to  be  colored  blue,  as 
they  do  in  other  regions,  but  reveal  themselves  clothed  in  colors  of  their 
own. 

The  Grand  Canyon  is  ever  full  of  this  haze.  It  fills  it  to  the  brim.  Its 
apparent  density,  as  elsewhere,  is  varied  according  to  the  direction  in  which 
it  is  viewed  and  the  position  of  the  sun;  but  it  seems  also  to  be  denser  and 
more  concentrated  than  elsewhere.  This  is  really  a  delusion,  arising  from 
the  fact  that  the  enormous  magnitude  of  the  chasm  and  its  component 
tissues  dwarf  the  distances;  we  are  really  looking  through  miles  of  atmo 
sphere  under  the  impression  that  they  are  only  so  many  furlongs.  This  ap 
parent  concentration  of  haze,  however,  greatly  intensifies  all  the  beautiful 
or  mysterious  optical  effects  which  are  dependent  upon  the  intervention  of 
the  atmosphere. 

Whenever  the  brink  of  the  chasm  is  reached,  the  chances  are  that  the 
sun  is  high  and  these  abnormal  effects  in  full  force.  The  canyon  is  asleep; 
or  it  is  under  a  spell  of  enchantment  which  gives  its  bewildering  ranges  an 
aspect  still  more  bewildering.  Throughout  the  long  summer  forenoon  the 
charm  which  binds  it  grows  in  potency.  At  midday  the  clouds  begin  to 
gather,  first  in  fleecv  flecks,  then  in  cumuli,  and  throw  their  shadows  into 
the  gulf.  At  once  the  scene  changes.  The  slumber  of  the  chasm  is  dis 
turbed..  The  temples  and  cloisters  seem  to  raise  themselves  half  awake  to 
greet  the  passing  shadow.  Their  wilted,  drooping,  flattened  faces  expand 
into  relief.  The  long  promontories  reach  out  from  the  distant  wall,  as  if  to 
catch  a  moment's  refreshment  from  the  shade.  The  colors  begin  to  glow; 
the  haze  loses  its  opaque  densitv  and  becomes  more  tenuous.  The  shadows 
pass,  and  the  chasm  relapses  into  its  dull  sleep  again.  Thus  through  the 
midday  hours  it  lies  in  fitful  slumber,  overcome  by  the  blinding  glare  and 


io  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

withering  heat,  yet  responsive  to  every  fluctuation  of  light  and  shadow, 
like  a  delicate  organism. 

Throughout  the  afternoon  the  prospect  has  been  gradually  growing 
clearer.  The  haze  has  relaxed  its  steely  glare  and  has  changed  to  a  veil  of 
transparent  blue.  Slowly  myriads  of  details  have  come  out  and  the  walls  are 
flecked  with  lines  of  minute  tracery,  forming  a  drapery  of  light  and  shade. 
Stronger  and  sharper  becomes  the  relief  of  each  projection.  The  promon 
tories  come  forth  from  the  opposite  wall.  The  sinuous  lines  of  stratification 
which  once  seemed  meaningless,  distorted,  and  even  chaotic,  now  range 
themselves  into  a  true  perspective  of  graceful  curves,  threading  the  scal 
lop  edges  of  the  strata.  The  colossal  buttes  expand  in  every  dimension: 
their  long,  narrow  wings,  which  once  were  folded  together  and  flattened 
against  each  other,  open  out,  disclosing  between  them  vast  alcoves  illumi 
nated  with  Rembrault  lights  tinged  with  the  pale,  refined  blue  of  the  ever 
present  haze.  A  thousand  forms,  hitherto  unseen  or  obscure,  start  up  within 
the  abyss,  and  stand  forth  in  strength  and  animation.  All  things  seem  to 
grow  in  beauty,  power,  and  dimensions.  What  was  grand  before  has  be 
come  majestic,  the  majestic  becomes  sublime,  and,  ever  expanding  and 
developing,  the  sublime  passes  beyond  the  reach  of  our  faculties  and  be 
comes  transcendent.  The  colors  have  come  back.  Inherently  rich  and 
strong,  though  not  superlative  under  ordinary  lights,  they  now  begin  to  dis 
play  an  adventitious  brilliancy.  The  western  sky  is  all  aflame.  The  scat 
tered  banks  of  cloud  and  wavy  cirrus  have  caught  the  waning  splendor, 


MESA   VERDE. 


and  shine  with  orange  and  crimson.  Broad  slant  beams  of  yellow  light, 
shot  through  the  glory  rifts,  fall  on  turret  and  tower,  on  pinnacled  crest  and 
winding  ledge,  suffusing  them  with  a  radiance  less  fulsome,  but  akin  to  that 
which  flames  in  the  western  clouds.  The  summit  band  is  brilliant  yellow 
the  next  below  is  a  pale  rose.  But  the  grand  expanse  within  is  a  deep 
luminous,  resplendent  red.  The  climax  has  now  come.  The  blaxe  of  sun 
light  poured  over  an  illimitable  surface  of  glowing  red  is  flung  back  into 
the  gulf,  and,  commencing  with  the  blue  haze,  turns  it  into  a  sea  of  purple 
of  most  imperial  hue— so  rich,  so  strong,  so  pure— that  it  makes  the  heart 
ache  and  the  throat  tighten,  However  vast  the  magnitudes,  however  ma 
jestic  the  forms  or  sumptuous  the  decoration,  it  is  in  these  kingly  colors  that 
the  highest  glory  of  the  Grand  Canyon  is  revealed. 

III.  This  leads  us  to  the  relation  of  the  Great  Plateau  to 
its  inhabitants.  We  have  spoken  of  the  effect  of  the  environ 
ment  upon  human  society,  but  the  question  is  whether  the 
effect  here  is  commensurate  to  the  scenery.  Ordinarily 
we  might  expect  that  the  people  who  dwelt  amid  such  grandeur 
would  unconsciously  be  influenced  by  it,  and  reach  a  higher 
grade  of  character  than  others.  We  do  not  find  this  to  be  the 
case,  except  in  their  mythology  and  in  their  view  of  the  super 
natural.  In  this,  however,  we  find  a  most  remarkable  series  of 


THE   GREAT   PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS.  11 

myths  and  legends  in  which  all  of  the  prominent  features  of 
the  landscape  are  embodied.  In  them  the  mountain  peaks,  the 
deep  gorges,  the  vast  streams,  the  distant  ocean,  the  many- 
colored  rocks,  the  fleecy  clouds,  the  glaring  sunlight,  the  fierce 
storms,  and  the  forked  lightning  figure  conspicuously.  The  very 
things  which  wt  regard  as  the  forces  of  nature,  with  them  were 
supernatural  beings  and  the  divinities,  whom  they  worship 
ped.  They  clothed  them  with  different  colors  and  gave  them 
names,  and  seemed  to  be  familiar  with  their  history.  These 
supernatural  beings  were  their  benefactors,  and  were  always 
present.  They  dwelt  within  the  rocks  and  had  their  furnished 
houses  there.  Some  of  them  were  born  upon  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  where  the  clouds  meet,  and  continued  to  dwell  there. 

The  nature  powers  were  all  personified,  and  the  divinities 
were  clothed  and  active.  The  lightnings  were  the  arrows  of  a 
chief,  who  wore  the  clouds  for  his  feathers,  and  ruled  the  storm, 
at  his  will.  There  were  sunbeam  rafts,  which  floated  in  the  sky, 
on  which  the  divinities  calmly  sailed.  There  were  caves 
beneath  the  earth  in  which  their  ancestors  dwelt,  but  the 
divinities  lightened  these  caves,  and  brought  them  out.  There 
were  floods  which  covered  the  valleys,  but  there  were  rainbow 
arches  stretched  above  the  floods,  and  the  land  became  dry  and 
was  fitted  for  the  abode  of  men.  There  were  sacred  lakes  be 
neath  which  the  spirits  of  the  children,  who  had  died,  dwelt, 
but  from  their  many-terraced  homes,  they  sent  their  messen 
gers  to  attend  the  sacred  feast  and  to  teach  the  people  about 
the  secret  powers  of  nature.  All  these  are  contained  in  their 
mythologies,  and  will  be  found  described  in  our  book  on 
44  Myths  and  Symbols." 

But  the  question  which  most  interests  us  is  that  which 
relates  to  the  character  of  the  people.  Was  this  affected  by 
the  scenery,  or  did  it  remain  untouched  and  asleep?  We  con 
clude,  as  we  study  the  people  as  they  are,  and  were,  that  they 
partook  far  more  of  the  quietude  of.  the  scene,  than  they  did 
of  its  grandeur.  This  seems  strange  to  the  transient  visitor, 
and  especially  to  the  uneducated  mind,  for  it  is  probable  that 
there  are  many  visitors  from  civilized  and  advanced  circles  of 
society,  who  stand  in  the  midst  of  these  scenes  and  are  as  un 
moved  as  the  natives  themselves.  At  least  they  fail  to  see  its 
hidden  significance. 

Of  course  there  is  an  inspiration  which  can  be  drawn  from 
communings  with  nature,  when  she  reaches  such  grandeur  as 
exists  here,  provided  one  is  equal  to  the  effort  of  interpreting 
her  mystic  language.  Sublimity  is  far  more  difficult  to  interpret 
than  is  ordinary  beauty.  One  may  commune  with  the  delicate 
flower  which  grows  in  the  crack  and  cranny  of  the  rock,  and 
feel  the  stirring  of  emotion  at  once;  for  it  is  like  looking  upon 
the  face  of  a  little  child,  the  smile  is  involuntary,  but  sweeps 
over  the  face  unconsciously.  It  is  easy  to  catch  the  mood  of 
nature  and  to  feel  the  touch  of  tenderness,  but  where  nature  is 


12  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

so  silent  and  yet  so  grand,  the  response  is  longer  delayed.  It 
is  like  looking  at  the  silent  Sphinx,  which  is  half  hidden  in  the 
sands  of  the  desert,  and  is  the  companion  of  the  Pyramids, 
which  are  as  silent. 

These  distant  regions,  hidden  so  far  away  in  the  deep  interior 
of  the  American  Continent,  have  no  associations  to  stir  one's 
memories.  Lofty  as  the  peaks  are  which  surround  the  Great 
Plateau,  they  are  silent;  often  covered  with  the  white  shrouds 
which  have  fallen  upon  them  from  the  skies,  but  oftener  draped 
in  that  hazy  blue  atmosphere  which  makes  them  so  distant  to 
the  vision.  They  seem  to  belong  to  another  world  than  ours. 

The  colors  which  come  from  the  varying  tinges  of.  the 
rocks  are,  indeed,  very  striking,  and  so  are  the  jagged  rocks 
which  project  from  the  sides  of  the  mountains,  but  they  always 
cause  us  to  feel  that  some  one  is  hidden  beyond  those  shadows 
and  that  humanity  has  dwelt  even  in  this  great  wilderness.  The 
outlines  of  the  rocks  may  resemble  ancient  castles,  and  we  may 
imagine  many  things,  but  the  impression  is  greatly  heightened 
when  we  discover  that  there  are  actual  ruins  upon  the  rocks, 
and  that  those  ruins  were  once  inhabited  and  were  used  as 
castles  by  the  ancient  people,  and  a  feeling  of  companionship 
is  awakened.  The  enquiry  at  once  arises:  how  long  have  these 
regions  been  occupied,  who  were  the  people  who  dwelt  in  these 
ruined  structures,  whence  did  they  come,  how  long  were  they 
here,  what  was  their  life,  where  did  they  get  their  subsistence, 
whither  have  they  gone,  what  was  their  history,  and  have  they 
left  any  record? 

The  scene  is  not  merely  one  of  nature's  handiwork,  wrought 
in  grandeur,  and  left  without  inhabitants;  nor  is  it  one  in  which 
the  past  is  entirely  covered  with  shadows.  There  must  be  a 
reality  bnck  of  this  scene;  a  substance  amid  these  shadows. 
We  might  imagine  many  things,  and  be  fill'ed  with  a  strange 
rhapsody  as  we  think  of  the  unreal  world.  We  might  picture 
the  unseen  spirits  as  having  dwelt  here,  and  shadowy  ghosts  as 
flitting  from  peak  to  peak.  This  might  increase  our  wonder 
and  fill  us  with  awe,  resembling  that  which  the  untrained  minds 
of  the  natives  have  often  felt  as  they  have  looked  upon  the 
scene;  for  with  them  the  natural  and  supernatural  are  one. 

In  that  case,  everything  would  be  as  weird  and  wild  as  a 
dream,  as  unreal  as  any  picture  which  poet  could  draw.  There 
might  arise  a  sense  of  fear,  and  superstition  might  be  aroused, 
and  we  find  ourselves  in  the  same  mood  as  were  the  wild  men, 
who  were  here  before  us.  But  this  does  not  quite  satisfy,  we 
want  to  know  about  the  people  who  formerly  dwelt  here. 
From  these  very  heights  we  have  gained  glimpses  of  ruins 
which  are  as  real  as  the  rocks  upon  which  they  rest.  These 
ruins  stir  our  minds  with  new  sensations,  as  they  have  the 
mindsof  others,  who  have  looked  upon  the  same  scenes. 

We  are  familiar  with  the  people  who  dwell  here  now,  but  we 
want  to  know  about  the  people  who  dwelt  here  in  the  long  ago. 


THE  GREAT  PLATEAU  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS.  13 

We  know,  also,  many  things  about  the  history  of  the  Creation 
as  it  is  written  in  the  rocks,  for  the  geologists  have  read  this 
clearly  for  us.  But  we  want  to  read  the  history  of  the  people 
as  well.  The  process  has  been  a  very  slow  one,  and  centuries 
have  passed;  but  there  must  have  been  also  a  process  by  which 
the  scene  was  peopled.  We  want  to  place  the  two  records  to 
gether  and  solve  the  mystery.  The  history  of  the  Creation 
is  a  marvellous  one,  and  must  have  taken  many  thousands  of 
years  to  accomplish.  This  history,  the  geologist  is  able  to  read 
and  point  out  its  periods  and  processes.  As  President  Jordan  has 
said,  the  earth's  crust  has  been  making  history  and  scenery,  with 
all  the  earth-moulding  forces  steadily  at  work,  and  has  rested  in 
the  sun  for  ten  thousand  centuries.  Mountains  were  folding, 
continents  were  taking  form,  while  this  land  of  patience  lay 
beneath  a  warm  and  shallow  sea,  as  the  centuries  piled  up  layer 
upon  layer  of  sand  and  rock. 

At  last  the  uplift  of  the  Sierras  changed  the  sands  to  dry 
land  and  by  the  forces  of  erosion  the  sands  were  torn  away 


rmilion  Cliffs.       l.ray  Cllflk. 


West  Kanab  Plat 

GEOLOGICAL  RELIEF  OF  THE  GREAT  PLATEAU. 

by  slow  process,  until  a  mile  or  more  of  vertical  depth  had 
been  stripped  from  the  whole  surface,  leaving  only  flat-topped 
buttes  here  and  there  to  testify  to  the  depth  of  the  ancient 
strata;  if  the  swift  river  from  the  glacial  mountains  had  done 
its  work  and  narrowed  its  bounds,  cutting  its  path  through  the 
flinty  stone  and  dropped  swiftly  from  level  to  level,  until  it 
reached  the  granite  core  of  earth  at  the  bottom,  and  a  view 
from  the  canyon  rim,  shows  at  a  glance  how  it  all  was  done, 
we  wonder  that  we  cannot  tell  more  about  the  people  who 
came  upon  the  scene,  and  the  time  at  which  they  came. 

This  is  the  scientists'  interpretation,  and  brings  to  view  the 
processes  of  nature;  but  what  shall  we  say  about  the  people 
who  have  dwelt  amid  this  scene?  What  is  their  history,  and 
what  was  the  date  of  their  advent?  From  what  country  did 
they  come?  To  what  race  and  stock  did  they  belong?  What 
were  the  channels,  by  which  they  reached  these  distant  regions? 

Access  to  this  isolated  plateau  was  originally  gained  by 
means  of  great  streams,  the  most  of  which  are  difficult  of 
navigation,  but  they  never-the-less  open  a  channel  in  different 
directions,  as  all  of  them  ultimately  reach  the  sea.  There  are 
mountain  passes  by  which  wandering  tribes,  who  were  accus 
tomed  to  follow  the  paths  wherever  they  lead,  could  reach  it. 


H  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

These  different  means  of  access  have  been  employed  by  the 
different  peoples  who  have  entered  the  mysterious  province. 

The  first  white  man  to  enter  it,  was  a  lone  traveller,  who 
was  ship-wrecked  upon  the  eastern  coast,  and  passing  from 
tribe  to  tribe  wandered  at  length  into  the  Great  Staked  Plain 
and  made  his  way  along  the  southern  border,  then  passed  on 
to  the  far  west,  and  there  made  his  report  of  the  marvellous 
things  which  he  had  seen.  Alter  which  a  little  band  of 
Spanish  cavaliers  passed  up  from  the  south  and  traversed  the 
valleys,  and  finally  reached  the  Great  Plateaus,  and  visited  the 
pueblos  which  were  scattered  here  and  there,  and  at  last  passed 
over  the  mountains  to  the  eastward  and  then  continued  their 
long  wanderings  in  search  of  the  fabulous  land  which  they 
called  Quivira.  After  the  Spaniards,  the  Americans  fitted  out 
vessels  and  sailed  around  the  continent,  entered  the  mouth  of 
the  Colorado  River,  and  finally  reached  the  region  by  this 
means. 

The  problem  now  before  us  does  not  refer  to  the  means  of 
access,  nor  to  the  conveniences  of  travelling  by  which  we  may 
reach  the  distant  region;  but  it  does  relate  to  the  period  when 
this  mysterious  locality  was  first  peopled,  and  to  the  direction 
which  was  taken  by  those  who  first  reached  it.  This  is  difficult 
to  solve,  though  many  theories  are  held  in  reference  to  it. 

Some  would  place  it  as  far  back  in  a  geological  age  as  the 
time  when  this  great  air  continent  was,  like  other  continents, 
surrounded  by  water,  and  raised  but  little  above  it.  At  that 
time  the  valleys,  which  are  now  so  wide,  were  filled  with  seas, 
which  have  long  since  disappeared. 

Others,  however,  would  date  the  peopling  of  this  mysterious 
continent  at  a  very  recent  period.  Judging  from  the  language 
which  has  been  used  by  some,  one  might  think  that  it  was  but 
a  short  time  before  the  discovery  by  Columbus.  The  true  date 
is  between  these  two  extremes;  but  it  can  not  be  definitely  fixed 
until  more  facts  are  secured. 


SCENERY   OX   THE    MANGOS. 


BAD    LANDS    IX    UTAH. 


Courtesy  of  Ch 
SCENERY   ON   THE   RIO   GRANDE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

"THE  AGE"  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 

We  have  in  a  preceding  chapter  described  the  cave  dwellings 
of  Europe,  and  have  there  considered  them  as  the  representa 
tives  of  the  earliest  abodes  of  primitive  man.  We  are  to  de 
vote  this  chapter  to  the  cliff-dwellings  but  shall  first  draw  the 
comparison  between  them  and  the  ancient  caves  for  by  that 
means  we  shall  be  able  to  decide  as  to  the  age  and  social  status 
of  the  people  who  inhabited  the  former.  It  is  understood  that 
the  cliff-dwellers  were  the  inhabitants  of  the  great  plateau  ot  the 
West,  and  for  aught  we  know,  were  the  earliest  inhabitants. 
The  date  of  their  appearance  and  of  their  disappearance  is  very 
uncertain,  ior  there  is  an  air  of  mystery  about  the  people  which  is 
difficult  to  dispel.  The  most  that  we  know  of  them  is  that  at 
some  indefinite  time  in  the  past  they  came  into  this  region  and 


THE  ECHO   CAVE   ON   THE   SAN   JUAN. 

amid  the  deep  canyons  and  on  the  high  mesas  made  their  homes,, 
drawing  their  subsistence  mainly  from  the  valleys  though  occas 
ionally  they  followed  the  chase,  and  fed  upon  the  wild  ani 
mals  which  lived  in  the  forest  and  roamed  over  the  mountains. 
They  seem  to  have  been  influenced  largely  by  their  surround 
ings,  for  in  their  art  they  used  the  material  which  abounded, 
and  in  their  architecture  imitated  the  shapes  of  the  cliffs.  They 
are  unknown  to  us  except  by  their  works  and  relics,  but  from 
these  we  learn  that  they  were  considerably  advanced  in  the  scale 
of  human  progress  and  furnish  in  this  respect  a  strong  con 
trast  to  the  cave-dwellers  of  Europe.  They  were  likewise 
advanced  beyond  the  ordinary  savage  and  hunter  tribes,  and  in 
their  social  status  represented  the  middle  stage  of  barbarism, 
rather  than  any  of  the  stages  of  savagery.  They  were  a  seden 
tary  people  given  largely  to  agriculture  but  cultivated  the  soil 
by  means  of  irrigation.  They  were  organized  into  clans  and 


!6  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

tribes,  and  at  first  built  their  houses  on  the  mesas  and  in  the 
valleys.  They  seem  to  have  been  surrounded  by  wild  tribes, 
who  compelled  them  to  find  refuge  in  the  sides  of  the  cliffs, 
from  which  they  were  finally  driven  and  then  disappeared.  Their 
history  is  unknown  for  there  are  no  records  left  and  very  few 
traditions  that  can  be  relied  upon.  The  pictographs  which  are 
found  inscribed  upon  the  rocks  furnish  some  hints  as  to  their 
religious  notions,  customs  and  myths,  but  they  give  very  little 
information  as  to  their  history  and  their  migrations.  It  is  to  the 
architectural  structures  and  the  relics  that  we  look  as  our  chief 
sources  of  information  and  especially  the  structures.  These  vary 
in  character,  but  as  a  general  thing  they  show  the  influence 
of  the  surroundings,  for  their  form,  shape,  grouping  and  general 
character  always  conform  to  the  situation  in  which  they  are 
found.  The  people  were  long  enough  in  the  country  to  have 
developed  a  state  of  society  and  a  mode  of  life  which  were  pe 
culiar,  and  they  adopted  a  style  of  architecture  which  has  not 
been  found  anywhere  else  on  the  globe.  This  is  best  known 
under  the  term  Pueblo  style  but  the  Pueblos  and  cliff- dwellings 
are  so  similar  that  both  may  be  classed  under  the  same  head. 
The  cliff-dwellings  differ  from  the  Pueblos  only  in  the  fact  that 
they  were  erected  in  the  side  of  the  cliffs  instead  of  in  the  val 
leys  or  upon  the  mesas.  We  propose  to  make  these  archi 
tectural  works  and  the  relics  and  tokens  found  around  them 
and  within  them,  the  object  of  our  study,  and  shall  hope  to 
ascertain  the  social  condition,  and  the  domestic  life,  of  the  people 
as  well  as  their  progress. 

I  The  first  question  will  be  with  regard  to  the  age  which 
they  represent.  The  term  age  needs  to  be  defined.  Generally  it 
means  period  which  may  be  reckoned  by  years  beginning 
with  some  fixed  date.  This  is  the  use  which  is  made  of  it  in 
history,  as  the  different  nations  have  different  eras  which  consti 
tute  the  beginning  of  their  history.  The  Greeks  date  theirs 
from  the  first  celebration  of  the  Olympian  games,  the  Romans 
from  the  building  of  the  city,  the  Hebrews  from  the  exodus  from 
Egypt,  the  Egyptians  from  the  days  of  Menes  their  first  King, 
the  Persians  from  the  birth  of  Zoroaster  their  great  hero  and  re 
ligious  founder,  the  Chinese  from  the  birth  of  Confucius,the  Turks 
and  other  Mohammedans  from  the  birth  of  Mohammed,  all 
Christian  nations  from  the  birth  of  Christ.  There  is  also  a  use 
of  the  word  which  is  peculiar  to  literature,  for  we  have  the 
Homeric  age,  the  age  of  the  poets  and  philosophers,  the  age  of 
Demosthenes.  Later  on  we  come  to  the  age  of  the  Eddas  and 
the  Minnesingers,  the  age  of  the  Schoolmen  and  the  Eliza 
bethan  age.  In  art  also  we  have  the  age  of  the  Greek  art, 
the  Roman  art,  mediaeval  art,  also  the  age  of  the  renaissance,  in 
art.  In  archaeology,  however,  the  term  signifies  something  quite 


"THE  AGE"  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  17 

different,  for  it  is  made  to  express  the  social  condition,  and  grade 
of  progress  which  existed  during  prehistoric  times,  as  the  sup 
position  is  that  these  grades  and  stages  followed  one  another  in 
a  regular  order  of  succession  and  the  index  of  the  grades  is  found 
in  the  material  of  which  the  relics  were  composed,  while  the 
architectural  structures  are  subordinate  to  the  relics.  Such  was 
the  case  in  Europe.  In  America  it  is  different.  We  have  here 
the  same  variety  cf  relics,  some  of  them  rude,  some  of  them 
finely  wrought  but  they  rarely  furnish  any  clue  as  to  the  time  in 
which  they  were  used  or  the  age  to  which  they  belonged,  as 
many  of  them  were  contemporaneous  and  belonged  to  the  same 
period.  There  are  to  be  sure  in  America  certain  geographical 
districts  which  contain  a  preponderence  of  rude  relics,  and  others 
which  present  those  which  are  highly  finished.  The  archaeologi 
cal  map  when  properly  made  may  be  said  to  represent  the  differ 
ent  stages  of  progress  and  grades  of  society,  which  in  Europe 
have  been  ascribed  to  the  different  ages,  the  lines  here  being 
horizontal  and  covering  the  surface  of  the  continent,  which  in 
Europe  are  perpendicular  and  constitute  an  archaeological  column. 
According  to  this  system  of  classification  we  should  place  the 
cliff-dwellings  high  up  in  the  scale  and  make  the  geographical 
district  in  which  they  are  found  represent  the  last  age,  which  in 
Europe  borders  close  upon  the  historic  period,  for  the  structures 
correspond  to  those  which  there  immediately  preceded  history, 
though  the  relics  present  a  lower  grade,  and  would  be  ascribed 
to  an  earlier  age.  It  is  probable  if  the  monumental  history  of 
the  world  were  written  we  should  find  that  the  order  of  suc 
cession  would  be  about  as  follows  :  I.  The  Cave-Dwellings 
which  may  be  divided  into  different  classes  according  to  the 
relics  and  remains  which  are  found  within  them.*  2.  The 
kitchen  middens  in  which  are  found  the  debris  of  camps  and 
the  remains  of  animals  on  which  people  fed.  3.  The  barrows 
and  tumuli  which  show  the  burial  customs  of  the  ancient 
people.  4.  The  dolmens,  and  chambered  tombs.  5.  The  lake- 
dwellings  which  are  so  common  in  Switzerland  and  "crannogs" 
common  in  Ireland  and  "  terramares  "  in  the  north  of  Italy.  6 
The  burghs,  towers,  §  nirhags  which  are  found  in  Scotland,  Ire- 

*The  caves  can  be  divided  into  three  classes  the  earliest  containing  the  bones  of  extinct 
animals  such  as  the  rhinoceros,  hippopotamus,  the  elephas,  primigenms,  cave  bear  hyena 
etc.,  the  second  by  the  bones  of  the  rein-deer  and  other  arctic  animals,  with  occasional  carv 
ings  and  relics  which  show  the  presence  of  man,  the  last  of  the  cave-dwellers  presenting  the  bones 
of  the  horse,  the  aurochs,  the  bos-priscos  or  ancient  ox  and  other  animals  which  became 
domesticated. 

SPerrott  &  Chipiez,  say:  "The  architecture  of  the  Aborigines  of  Sardinia  exhibits  a  degree  of 
originality  witnessed  nowhere  else  save  in  the  Talagats  of  the   Balearic  Islands  and   the  mega- 
lithic  monuments  of  North  Africa.      Notwithstanding  their  rough  and  archaic  character,  both 
classes  of  structures,  tombs  and  nirhags,  show  a  distinct  individuality.       We  are  inclined 
lieve  that  Sardinia  was  occupied  by  two  distinct  people,  differing  from  and  at  war  with  each 
other      The  older  inhabitants  were  those  tribes  respecting,  whom  we  know  nothing  except  th 
they  were  uncivilized  and  lived  in  rocky  caverns.     The  latter  were  the  builders  of  the   nirhags, 
and  may  be  called  the    nirhag  people.       These   owing  to  the  superiority  of  their  arms  and  t 
solidity  of  their  towers,  were  able  to  possess  themselves  of  the  more  fruitful  portions  of  the  country, 
the  early  inhabitants  gradually  falling  backward  toward  the  centre  without  being  pur    led,  lo 


i8  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

land  and  in  some  cases  in  Sardinia.  7.  The  structures  which  are 
known  to  history,  among  which  are  the  huts  similar  to  the  one 
occupied  by  Romulus  and  Remus  and  such  tombs  as  have  been 
found  at  Mycenae  and  Tiryns. 

In  America  we  find  a  series  which  resembles  these  in  the  char 
acter  ot  their  architecture,  but  all  of  them  contemporaneous.  The 
main  resemblance  between  them  and  the  monuments  of  Europe 
consists  in  the  grades  of  progress  exhibited.  The  series  would  be 
as  follows  :  i.  The  ice-huts  and  Eskimo  houses,  also  the  shell 
heaps  found  on  the  north  Atlantic  coast.  2.  The  Ancient  village 
sites,  and  ash  heaps  which  are  scattered  over  the  forests  of  Canada. 
3.  The  long  houses  and  ancient  villages  of  the  Iroquois  and  the 
hunter-tribes  of  the  great  lakes.  4.  The  mounds  and  earth-works 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  the  Ohio  river  and  the  Gulf  States. 
5.  The  wooden  houses  and  ancient  villages  of  the  Indians  of  the 
North-west  coast,  including  the  highly  wrought  and  grotesque 
ly  carved  totem  poles.  6.  The  cliff-dwellings  and  Pueblos  scat 
tered  through  the  great  plateau.  7.  The  ruins  of  the  ancient 
cities  of  Mexico  and  Central  America  in  which  are  found  the 
pyramids  and  temples  which  were  erected  by  the  civilized  tribes. 

If  we  compare  the  two  lists  we  shall  find  that  the  cliff-dwell 
ings  correspond  to  the  towers  and  burghs  of  Europe,  the  pyra 
mids  in  America,  which  are  supposed  to  be  the  last  of  the  pre 
historic  series  correspond  to  the  pyramids  and  temples  of  Egypt 
which  are  supposed  to  be  the  first  of  the  historic  series. 

Such  is  the  schedule  which  may  be  laid  out  by  the  study  of 
the  monuments  as  well  as  the  study  of  the  relics.  It  prepares 
the  way  for  the  consideration  of  the  '"ages."*  The  division  of  the 
prehistoric  period  into  three  distinct  ages  is  confirmed.  There 
were  "successive  periods  of  development"  in  both  continents 
though  the  "  chronological  horizons  "  which  have  been  recog 
nized  in  Europe  are  lacking  in  America. f 

II.  The  next  inquiry  will  be  in  reference  to  the  cliff-dwellings 
and  their  position  among-  the  prehistoric  monuments.  Our  first 

they  left  all  that  was  worth  having  in  their  rear.  The  position  was  changed  when  the  nirhag 
builders  were  invaded  by  the  Carthaginians.  A  theory  might  be  formed  that  the  nirhags  were 
placed  to  defend  the  people,  but  the  probability  is  that  they  became  absorbed  with  the  Cartha 
ginians.  The  Sardinians  were  at  that  stage  when  the  means  of  defense  were  deemed  of  greater 
importance  than  the  creature  comforts,  or  the  amenities  of  life.  The  tenor  of  life  of  this  illiterate 
people  was  of  as  rude  a  description  as  well  can  be  imagined.  Cities  they  had  none.  The  bare, 
miserable  huts  which  formed  their  villages  were  arranged  in  serrated  files  around  the  nirhags. 
A  saw,  a  horn,  a  comb  a  bone  represent  the  whole  of  their  domestic  implements  for  personal  use. 
The  population  consisted  mainly  of  hunters  and  soldiers.  Their  aptitude  in  using  lead,  copper 
and  bronze  in  making  their  arms  and  implements,  when  compared  with  pottery,  attest  this.  Had 
the  Phoenicians  never  visited  Sardinia  the  use  of  tin  and  bronze  would  have  been  unknown  to 
the  inhabitants." 

*We  have  already  seen  that  the  prehistoric  works  in  Europe  were  to  be  divided  into  several 
classes  belonging  to  different  ages,  and  that  taking  them  together  they  constitute  a  series  in 
which  the  advancement  of  artand  architecture  can  be  recognized.  The  structures  of  the  bronze 
age  are  as  follows  :  (a)  the  palafittes  or  lake-dwellings  which  are  situated  in  deep  water, 
and  contain  relics  of  an  advanced  type  (b)  the  ancient  fortifications  (c)  circular  towers, 
enclosures,  etc. 

fThe  parts  of  the  European  series  which  are  lacking  in  America  are  as  follows:  i.  The 
chambered  tombs  and  dolmens.  2.  The  cromlechs  standing  stones  and  alignments.  3.  The 
lake  dwellings,  though  the  last  seem  to  have  their  correlatives  in  the  sea-girt  villages  which  have 
been  discovered  oft  the  coast  of  Florida. 


HOHLEFELS   CAVE   AT   WURTENBERG. 


BONE  CAVE    At    GAILEXREUTH,    BAVARIA. 


TOWER    IN    SARDINIA. 


BROCH   OF  MQUS/S,  SHETLAND. 


"THE  AGE  "  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  19 

thought  is  that  they  are  in  great  contrast  to  the  caves  of  Europe, 
which  are  the  only  cliff-dwellings  found  there,  but  they  corres 
pond  to  the  cavate  houses  which  are  very  numerous  in  the  Pueb 
lo  territory  and  represent  the  same  stage  of  architecture. 

The  cliff-dwellings  belong  to  a  series  which  in  Europe  would 
be  placed  under  the  bronze  age,  but  as  no  bronze  was  introduced 
into  America  they  must  be  ascribed  in  common  with  the  other 
monuments  to  the  stone  age.  They,  however,  represent  an  ad 
vanced  part  of  the  stone  age  and  so  are  in  contrast  \\ith  the  cave- 
dwellings  in  Europe.  In  fact  we  are  obliged  to  place  the  caves 
of  Europe  at  one  extreme  and  the  cliff-dwellings  at  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  are  led  to  believe  that  the  whole  history  of  human 
progress,  which  took  place  during  prehistoric  times,  is  recorded 
in  the  structures  which  were  erected  between  these  two 
ages.* 

There  is  another  important  point  to  be  mentioned  here.  In 
Europe  the  monuments  and  relics  seem  to  follow  one  another  in 
the  order  of  time,  and  exhibit  different  periods  or  ages.  In 
America  each  series  begins  abruptly  without  any  preceding  stage. 
In  fact  the  civilization  of  America,  whatever  it  was,  seems  to 
have  sprung,  like  Athene,  from  the  head  of  Jupiter,  fully  armed. 
This  has  been  noticed  by  others,  as  the  following  extract  from 
Sir  Wm.  Dawson  will  show  : 

"The  abrupt  appearance  of  man  on  this  continent,  his  association  with 
animals  which  beloug  to  the  most  recent  quarternary  period,  and  the  en 
tire  lack  of  evidence  that  he  ever  associated  with  any  of  the  extinct  ani 
mals,  makes  the  contrast  between  the  two  very  great.  His  introduction 
into  Europe  was  at  the  close  of  the  great  ice  age  and  yet  mysterious  revo 
lutions  of  the  earth  occurred  in  that  age.  The  continual  oscillation  may 
have  gone  on  at  intervals  for  many  thousands  of  years  ;  but  the  last  period 
of  the  elevation  is  the  equivalent  of  the  early  appearance  of  man  and  joins 
upon  the  Paleolithic  age.  The  contrast  between  America  and  Europe  is 
that  the  Paleolithic  age  is  left  out  and  the  geological  time  joins  hard  upon 
historic  times.  The  real  interest  in  the  prehistoric  people  here,  such  as  the 
mound-builders  and  cliff-dwellers,  is  not  in  their  antiquity  but  in  the  fact 
that  they  reproduce  a  condition  of  society  which  immediately  preceded 
history.  They  show  to  us  that  condition  of  society  on  which  history  was 
built  which  e'xisted  in  the  East  two  or  three  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era  and  perhaps  five  thousand  years  before  the  Discovery.  Some 

*A11  caves  in  Belgium,  France, England,  etc.,  which  were  easily  accessible,  and  provided  with 
a  sufficient  opening,  weie  inhabited.  In  the  middle  was  the  hearth,  paved  with  sand-stone  or 
slate,  and  around  this  the  family  gathered  during  the  season  of  intense  cold.  There  were  caves 
also,  which  being  too  much  exposed  to  the  weather,  served  only  as  a  dwelling  in  summer.  Such 
occur  in  the  south  of  France,  and  are  destitute  of  any  traces  of  a  hearth,  though  otherwise  afford 
ing  the  clearest  evidence  of  having  been  inhabited  by  men.  The  caves  in  Europe  which  give 
the  mo  st  evidence  of  having  been  occupied  are  three  grottos  of  Les  Eyzies,  Laugene,  Basse  and 
La  Madelaine,  in  the  department  of  Dordogne.  The  first  of  these  is  high  and  wide  enough  to 
enable  the  light  to  penetrate  throughout  being  12  meters  deep,  16  broad,  and  6  meters  high:  it 
appears  to  have  been  used  in  the  middle  ages  as  a  stable  for  horses;  When  Lartet  and  Christie 
began  their  explorations,  the  grotto  had  been  considerably  enlarged  and  deepened  by  earlier  oc 
cupants,  though  the  explorers  found  at  the  bottom  a  compact,  floor,  from  which  projected  masses 
of  blackish  stalagmite,  flint  instruments,  stones  and  pieces  of  bone;  this  bone  breccia  lay  im 
mediately  on  the  rock  floor  of  the  cave,  and  showed  a  thickness  of  one  of  three  decemeters. 
Large  pieces  were  broken  loose,  which  were  sent  partly  io  different  museums,  but  in  greater 
quantities  to  Paris,  with  a  view  to  more  exact  examination.  The  station  of  Laugerie-Basse  is 
partly  in  the  hollow  of  a  rock,  whose  face  is  100  feet  high,  while  apart  of  the  formation,  on  which 
appeared  traces  of  an  open  fire  place,  extended  outwardly  in  front  of  the  cavern. 


20  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

imagine  that  this  comment  was  inhabited  by  the  Aborigines  long  before 
the  beginning  of  history  else-where,  but  for  the  present  we  have  no  evidence 
to  prove  it.  This  is  not  denying  that  there  may  have  been  a  paleolithic  age 
in  America,  yet  so  far  the  evidence  is  unsatisfactory — lor  all  the  relics 
which  in  Europe  are  ascribed  to  the  three  age,  are  here  crowded  into  the 
single  one,  the  Neolithic— the  cliff-dwellings  representing  the  last  part." 

III.  This  leads  us  to  consider  the  relative  age  of  the  cliff-dwell 
ings  and  caves.  On  this  there  seems  to  be  a  difference  of  opinion, 
some  think  the  cliff-dwellings  as  ancient  as  the  caves  of  Europe 
and  ascribe  to  them  a  marvellous  antiquity,  while  others  think 
they  were  very  modern,  and  were  perhaps  occupied  after  the  ad 
vent  of  the  white  men,  though  no  relics  have  been  discovered  in 
them  which  would  show  contact  with  the  whites,  the  truth  lies 
probably  between  these  two  classes,  for  there  is  evidence  that  the 
cliff-dwellings  were  occupied  at  different  periods,  some  of  them 
very  early,  earlier  than  any  of  th~  Pueblos,  others  quite  late. 

We  shall  quote  from  both  classes.  The  following  is  from 
Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  who  visited  and  described  the  group  of 
cave-dwellings  and  towers  on  the  Rio  San  Juan,  and  furnished  a 
drawing  of  the  cliffs  and  of  the  towers  above  the  cliffs.* 

"  On  examination  I  found  them  to  have  been  shaped  by  the  hand  of 
man,  but  so  weathered  out  and  changed  by  the  slow  process  of  atmospher 
ic  erosion  that  the  evidences  of  art  were  almost  obliterated. 

"  The  openings  are  arched  irregularly  above,  and  generally  quite  shal 
low,  being  governed  very  much  in  contour  and  depth  by  the  quality  of  the 
rock. 

"  The  work  of  excavation  has  not  been  an  extremely  difficult  one  even 
with  the  imperfect  implements  that  must  have  been  used  as  the  shale  is  for 
the  most  part  soft  and  friable. 

"  It  is  also  extremely  probable  that  they  were  walled  up  in  front  and 
furnished  with  doors  and  windows,  yet  no  fragment  of  wall  has  been  pre 
served.  Indeed  so  great  has  been  the  erosion  that  many  of  the  caves  have 
been  almost  obliterated,  and  are  now  not  deep  enough  to  give  shelter  to  a 
bird  or  bat.  This  circumstance  should  be  considered  in  reference  to  its 
bearing  upon  its  antiquity.  If  we  suppose  the  recess  to  be  destroyed  as  six 
feet  deep,  the  entire  cliff  must  recede  that  number  of  feet  in  order  to  accom 
plish  it.  If  the  rock  were  all  of  the  friable  quality  of  the  middle  part,  this 
would  indeed  be  a  matter  of  a  very  few  decades  ;  but  it  should  be  remem 
bered  that  the  upper  third  of  the  cliff  face  is  composed  of  beds  of  compara 
tively  hard  rocks,  sandstones  and  indurated  shales.  It  should  also  be  noted 
still  further  that  at  the  base  of  the  cliff  there  is  an  almost  total  absence  of 
debris  or  fallen  rock,  or  even  of  an  ordinary  talus  of  earth;  so  that  the  period 
that  has  elapsed  since  these  houses  were  deserted  must  equal  the  time  taken 
to  undermine  and  break  down  the  six  feet  of  rock,  plus  the  time  required  to 
reduce  this  mass  of  rock  to  dust;  considering  also  that  the  erosive  agents 
are  here  unusually  weak,  the  resulting  period  would  certainly  not  be  in 
considerable.'^ 

The  view  given  by  Prof.  Cope  is  the  same  as  that  given  by 
by  Mr.  Holmes;  he  formed  his  opinion  as  to  the  antiquity  of  the 

*See  Hayden's  report  for  1876,  Bulletin  Vol.  i,  No.  i. 

§"Figure  7  gives  a  fair  representation  of  their  present  appearance  of  these  dwellings,  while 
their  relations  to  the  groups  of  ruins  above  will  be  understood  by  refeien:e  to  page  183.  These 
ruins  are  three  in  number — one  rectangular  and  two  circular.  The  rectangular  one,  as  indicated 
in  the  plan  C,  is  placed  on  the  edge  of  the  mesa,  over  the  more  northern  gro  up  of  cave-dwellings; 
it  is  not  of  great  importance,  being  only  34x40  feet,  and  scarcely  2  feet  high;  the  walls  are  one 
and  one-half  feet  thick  and  built  of  stone." 


"THE  AGE"  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  21 

ruins  from  the  erosion  which'was  manifest,  and  from  the  evidences 
of  the  change  of  climate.  This  has  been  controverted,  it  is  now 
held  by  many  that  the  climate  is  exactly  the  same  when  the  ruins 
and  the  caves  were  inhabited  as  now,  but  the  reservoirs  and 
means  of  storing  up  water,  near  the  Pueblos,  have  been  de 
stroyed.  The  following  is  his  language  : 

"In  traversing  the  high  and  dry  Eocene  plateau  west  of  the  bad  land 
bluffs,  I  noticed  the  occurrence  of  crockery  on  the  denuded  hills  for  a  dis 
tance  of  many  miles.  Some  of  these  localities  are  fifteen  and  twenty  miles 
from  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  aud  at  least  twenty-five  miles  from  the  edge 
of  the  Gallinas  Creek,  the  nearest  permanent  water.  In  some  of  these  lo 
calities  ihe  summits  of  the  hills  had  been  corroded  to  a  narrow  keel,  de 
stroying  the  foundations  of  the  former  buildings.  In  one  locality  I  ob 
served  inscriptions  on  the  rocks,  and  other  objects,  which  were  probably  the 
work  of  the  builders  of  these  stone  towns;  I  give  a  copy  of  figures 
which  I  found  on  the  side  of  a  ravine  near  to  Abiquiu  on  the  river  Chama. 
They  are  cut  in  jurrassic  sandstone  of  medium  hardness,  and  are  quite 
worn  and  overgrown  with  the  small  lichen  which  is  abundent  on  the  face  of 
the  rock.  I  know  nothing  respecting  their  origin.  It  is  evident  that  the 
region  of  the  Gallinas  was  once  as  thickly  inhabited  as  are  now  the  more 
densely  populated  portions  of  the  Eastern  states.  The  number  of  buildings 
in  a  square  mile  in  that  region  is  equf.l  to,  if  not  greater  than,  the  number 
now  existing  in  the  more  densely  populated  rural  districts  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey.  Nevertheless  if  we  yield  to  the  supposition  that  during 
the  period  of  residence  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  the  water  supply  from 
rains  was  greater  than  now,  what  evidence  do  we  possess  which  bears  on 
the  age  of  that  period  ?  There  is  no  difference  between  the  vegetation  found 
growing  in  these  buildings  and  that  of  the  surrounding  hills  and  valleys; 
the  pines,  oaks  and  sage  brush  are  of  the  same  size,  and  to  all  appearances 
of  the  same  age.  I  should  suppose  them  to  be  contemporary  in  every  re 
spect.  In  the  next  place  the  bad  lands  have  undergone  a  definite  amount 
of  atmospheric  erosion  since  the  occupancy  of  the  houses  which  stand  on 
their  summits.  The  rate  of  this  erosion  under  present  atmospheric  influ 
ence,  is  undoubtedly  very  slow.  The  only  means  which  suggested  itself, 
at  the  time,  as  available  for  estimating  this  rate  was  the  calculation  of  the 
age  of  the  pine  trees  growing  near  the  edge  of  the  bluffs." 

Such  was  the  view  of  the  early  explorers.  Others,  however, 
have  noticed  the  different  periods  of  occupation.  These  are 
indicated  by  the  relics  and  remains  as  well  as  the  structures. 
Among  the  relics  the  pottery  is  the  most  suggestive.  It  appears 
there  were  several  kinds  of  pottery,  white  decorated  with  black 
lines,  red  with  black  geometrical  designs,  corrugated,  indented 
plain  red  and  plain  black  coarsely  glazed.  Of  these  the  white 
with  black  lines  is  regarded  as  the  most  ancient  as  it  is  found 
with  the  most  ancient  remains.  Many  specimens  of  this  kind  of 
pottery  are  found  in  various  localities,  among  the  cliff-dwellings 
of  the  San  Juan  among  the  ancient  ruins  west  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  among  the  Portreros  in  South  Eastern  New  Mexico  and  a 
few  specimens  in  Arizona  in  the  Valley  of  the  Gila.  It  is  found 
oftener  in  the  ruins  of  small  houses  and  near  the  ancient  caves 
or  cavate  houses,  than  among  the  Pueblos,  thus  showing  that 
the  caves  were  first  occupied  and  preceded  the  Pueblos.  In  the 
northern  section  of  this  Pueblo  territory  the  class  of  pottery  is 


22  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

found  which  in  Utah  and  New  Mexico  is  characteristic  of  the 
small  houses,  but  here  appears  associated  with  all  kinds  of  ruins, 
detached  family  dwellings,  round  towers,  cliff-houses,  villages 
built  in  caves  and  "rock-shelters."  In  the  cliff-houses  and  cave- 
dwellings  which  line  the  walls  of  Canyon  de  Chelley,  the  black 
and  white,  the  corrugated,  the  indented  ware,  is  found,  and  with 
it  some  quite  handsomely  decorated,  thus  showing  that  even  in 
this  region  there  was  a  succession.  Mr.  Nordenskjold  noticed 
that  among  the  cliff-dwellings  on  the  San  Juan,  the  black  and 
white  was  associated  with  the  oldest  and  rudest  ruins  and  this 
with  the  rude  character  of  the  foundation  walls  as  well  as  the 
human  remains  discovered  led  him  to  believe  that  among  the 
cliff-dwellers  there  were  different  periods  of  occupation  and  pos 
sibly  different  tribes.  A  similar  succession  has  been  recognized 
in  other  parts  of  the  Pueblo  territory.  Mr.  Bandelier  found  cave- 
dwellings  at  the  west  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  among  the  Por- 
treros,  which  contained  many  specimens  of  pottery  of  the  ancient 
types,  namely  black  and  white,  which  show  that  here  at  least, 
there  were  people  who  made  permanent  homes,  and  that  the 
small  houses  were  not  mere  temporary  refuges  or  resorts.  He 
says: 

"The  Potrero  Chata  represent  two  varieties  of  ancient  architecture  each 
accompanied  by  a  distinct  type  of  pottery.  The  small  house  ruins,  of  which 
the  potsherds  belong  to  the  ancient  kind,  cannot  have  been  mere  summer 
ranches,  for  it  is  not  presumable  that  the  Indians  would  use  one  class  of 
earthenware  for  winter  and  another  kind  in  summer.  Hence  I  consider  my 
self  justified  in  concluding  that  there  were  two  distinct  epochs  of  occupa 
tion.  Wherever  the  caves  stand  without  Pueblo  rums,  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  they  show  almost  exclusively  the  old  kinds  of  potsherds,  the  black 
and  white  or  grav  and  the  corrugated.  This  would  indicate  that  the  artific 
ial  caves  and  the  small  houses  belong  to  the  same  period,  anterior  to  the 
many  storied  Pueblos.  This  is  confirmed  by  another  fact.  While  the 
buildings  in  this  vicinity,  whether  large  or  small,  are  made  of  blocks  of 
tufa,  the  walls  of  the  Pueblos  seem  well  preserved  but  the  small  houses  are 
reduced  to  the  foundation  rubbish." 

The  same  author  speaks  of  the  ruins  of  Portrero  de  Las  Vecas 
and  of  the  stone  idols  found  near  them.  The  name  applied  to 
the  locality  signified  "where  the  panthers  lie  extended."  He  re 
fers  to  the  life  size  images  of  panthers  which  lie  a  few  hundred 
yards  west  of  the  ruins  in  low  woods  near  the  foot  of  the  cliffs. 
The  age  and  object  of  the  images  is  unknown,  but  the  fact  that 
pottery  of  a  coarsely  glazed  and  black  and  white  as  well  as  cor 
rugated  type  abound  near  the  ruins  would  show  that  they  are 
ancient.  They  possibly  were  the  totems  of  an  ancient  tribe 
though  they  have  been  ascribed  to  the  Queres — a  tribe  still 
dwelling  in  the  region. 

Mr.  Bandelier  speaks  of  two  other  images  of  panthers  which 
were  situated  on  a  mesa  which  rises  above  the  Canada  304  feet 
in  height.  They  are  situated  in  the  open  space,  but  are  in  better 


"THE  AGE"  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  23 

condition  than  those  on  the  Potr.ero  de  las  Vecas  as  the  rock  on 
which  they  were  carved  is  much  harder,  and  has  consequently 
resisted  atmospheric  erosion  far  better.  There  is  a  tradition 
among  the  Cochitis  that  they  were  made  by  their  ancestors,  who 
were  the  inhabitants  of  Kuapa,  an  ancient  village  situated  about 
a  mile  away.  They  were  probably  the  shrines  of  a  people  who 
worshiped  the  panthers  as  one  of  their  prey  Gods,  very  much 
as  the  Zunis  did  before  the  advent  of  the  whites,  and  do  even  at 
the  present  day. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson  also  speaks  of  ancient  cave-dwellings 
walled  up  circular  orifices  in  the  rock  generally  inaccessible,  but 
approached  by  steps  or  small  holes  cut  in  the  rock  though  the 
steps  are  now  so  worn  down  by  the  disintegrating  influences  of 
time  that  they  are  hardly  perceptible.  He  speaks  also  of  another 
locality 


itennarT/i^   X     ~"     /* 


ANCIENT    WALL 


"  Where  the  ruins  consist  entirely  of  great  mounds 
of  rocky  debris  piled  up  in  rectangular  masses  cover 
ed  with  earth  and  a  brush  growth  bearing  every  in 
dication  of  extreme  age,  just  how  old  it  is  about  as 
impossible  to  tell  as  to  say  how  old  the  rocks  of  this 
canyon  are.  Each  seperate  building  would  cover 
generally  a  space  of  about  100  feet  square,  they  are  generally  subdivided 
into  two  or  four  apartments.  There  were  no  cave-dwellings 'in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  this  group,  but  two  or  three  miles  below  several  occurred  one 
of  which  is  built  in  a  huge  niche  in  the  solid  wall  of  canyon  with  its  floor 
level  with  the  valley." 

"Among  the  ruins  on  the  Epsom  Creek  within  a  distance  of  fifteen 
miles  there  are  some  sixteen  or  eighteen  promontories  and  isolated  mesas 


24  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

every  one  of  them  covered  with  ruins  of  old  and  massive  stone  built  struc 
tures.  They  average  in  size  one  hundred  by  two  hundred  feet  square,  down 
to  thirty  by  fifty  feet,  always  in  a  solid  block,  and,  with  one  exception,  so 
nearly  similar  that  a  description  of  one  will  fiirly  represent  all.  The  pe 
culiarity  here  consists  principally  in  the  size  and  shape  of  the  stones  em 
ployed  as  well  as  in  the  design  of  its  ground  plan.  The  ruin  occupies  one 
of  the  small  isolated  mesas,  whose  floor  is  composed  of  a  distinctly  lamin 
ated  sandstone,  breaking  into  regular  slabs  from  eighteen  inches  to  twenty- 
four  inches  in  thickness;  these  have  been  broken  again  into  long  blocks 
and  then  placed  in  the  wall  upright,  the  largest  standing  five  feet  above 
the  soil  in  which  they  are  planted.  Very  nearly  the  entire  length  of  this 
wall  is  made  up  of  the  large  upright  blocks  of  even  thickness,  fitting  close 
together,  with  only  occasional  spaces  filled  up  with  smaller  rocks.  In  one 
place  the  long  blocks  have  been  pushed  outward  by  the  weight  of  the 
debris  back  of  it.  One  side  of  the  large  square  apartment  in  the  rear  is 
made  of  the  same  kind  of  rocks,  standing  in  a  solid  row.  The  walls 
throughout  the  rest  of  the  building  are  composed  of  ordinary  sized  rocks, 
with  an  occasional  large  upright  one.  Judging  from  the  debris,  the  walls 
could  not  have  been  more  than  eight  or  ten  feet  in  height.'  The  foundation 
line  was  well  preserved,  enabling  us  to  measure  accurately  its  dimensions. 
The  large  square  room  was  depressed  in  the  centre,  and  its  three  outside 
walls  contained  less  material  than  in  the  rest  of  the  building.  No  sign  of 
any  aperture,  either  of  window  or  door,  could  be  detected.  The  more 
numerous  class  of  ruins  occupying  the  mesas  and  the  promontory  points 
consists  of  a  solid  mass  of  small  rectangular  rooms  arranged  without  ap 
pearance  of  order,  conforming  to  the  irregularities  of  the  surface  upon 
which  they  are  built,  and  covering  usually  all  the  available  space  chosen 
for  their  site.  All  are  extremely  old  and  tumbled  into  indefinite  ridges  five 
or  six  feet  high  with  the  stones  partially  covered  with  sage  brush,  grease, 
wood  and  junipers.  They  occupied  every  commanding  point  of  the  mesas- 
usually  so  placed  in  the  bends  as  to  afford  a  clear  outlook  for  considerable 
distances  up  and  down  the  canyon.  They  resemble  in  this  respect  the  sites 
chosen  by  the  Moquis  in  building  their  villages  ;  but  we  were  not  able  to 
trace  the  resemblance  further,  from  the  extremely  aged  and  ruinos  state 
in  which  these  remains  are  found." 

IV.  The  relative  age  of  the  "  cavate  lodges  "  and  the  "  cliff- 
dwellings"  may  well  be  considered  in  this  connection.  On  general 
principles  we  might  consider  that  the  caves  were  the  older,  for 
they  are  ruder,  and  the  scenery  wilder  yet  the  cliff-dwellings 
themselves  were  strangely  enough,  sometimes  placed  at  almost 
incredible  heights,  and  amid  the  wildest  scenes  of  nature.  There 
is  an  unwritten  history  in  these  varied  structures,  and  there  is  a 
temptation  oftentimes  to  read  into  them,  a  fabulous  antiquity. 

We  judge  from  these  ruined  walls  and  their  proximity  to  the 
caves,  as  well  as  the  character  of  the  caves  themselves,  that  the 
cliff-dwellers  were  much  farther  advanced  than  the  cave-dwellers 
of  Europe.  Even  the  caves  which  seem  to  be  very  old  have 
ruined  towers  connected  with  them,  which  show  much  skill  in 
architecture.  The  age  of  the  caves  is  ot  course  unknown,  but  it 
seems  to  be  very  considerable. 

There  is  another  side  to  this  subject.  The  caves  and  dwellings 
discovered  by  these  gentlemen  undoubtedly  belong  to  an  early 
period  of  the  Pueblo's  and  cliff  dweller's  history,  but  there  are 
also  caves  which  were  occupied  at  a  much  later  date  and  it  will 
therefore  be  well  to  examine  them  before  we  draw  conclusions  in 


THE  AGE"  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  25 

reference  to  the  relative  age  of  the  caves  and  the  cliff-dwellings. 
These  are  situated  in  the  midst  of  the  very  plateau  where  the 
cliff-dwellings  are  found  and  probably  belonged  to  the  same  peo 
ple,  and  to  the  same  age.  They  differ  in  nearly  all  respects  from 
the  caves  of  Europe,  for  they  evidently  belong  to  the  neolithic 
age,  and  the  same  part  of  the  age  to  which  the  cliff-dwellings  be 
long,  but  they  illustrate  a  fact  which  is  as  common  in  modern  as 
in  ancient  times.  The  people  may  have  reached  the  same  grade 
of  civilization,  and  have  followed  about  the  same  kind  of  life, 
using  the  same  kind  of  tools,  implements,  utensils,  and  yet  be 
living  in  very  different  kind  of  houses,  inasmuch  as  their  circum 
stances  and  resources  differed.  In  this  respect  prehistoric  people 
were  not  different  from  historic  people.  It  is  then  no  evidence 
of  very  great  age  if  it  is  proved  that  people  lived  in  caves,  for 
there  are  caves  in  Europe  which  are  occupied  even  to  this  day, 
and  it  is  supposed  by  many  of  the  explorers  that  some  of  these 
caves  of  the  far  west  were  occupied  after  the  cliff-dwellings.  Such 
seems  to  be  the  opinion  of  Maj.  J.  W.  Powell,  Mr.  Ad.  F.  Ban- 
delier,  Mr,  Cosmos  Mendeliff  and  others.  Mr.  Bandelier  says  : 

"Cavate  lodges,  cave-dwellings  and  cliff-dwellings  are  only  different 
phases  of  the  same  thing.  There  are  but  three  regions  in  the  United 
States  in  which  cavate  lodges  are  known  to  occur  inconsiderable  numbers, 
viz.:  on  San  Juan  river,  near  its  mouth,  on  the  western  side  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  near  the  Pueblo  of  Santa  Clara;  and  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
San  Francisco  mountain,  near  Flag-staff,  Arizona.  To  these  may  now  be 
added  the  Rio  Verde  region.  Cave  villages  of  the  kind  described  are 
numerous,  occupying-  an  area  of  about  three  thousand  square  miles.  They 
are  merely  a  local  feature  to  which  the  Indian  was  induced  to  resort  by  the 
nature  of  the  prevailing  geological  formation."' 

It  may  be  well  then  to  study  the  different  localities  in  which 
the  so  called  cavate  lodges  are  found  and  compare  them  with 
those  where  the  cliff-dwellings  abound.  It  will  be  seen  that 
these  caves  or  cavate  lodges  like  the  caves  of  Europe  are  in  the 
midst  of  wild  and  mountainous  regions,  but  in  regions  in  which 
volcanic  rocks  are  friable  and  so  caves  are  easily  excavated. 

The  most  interesting  locality  is  that  west  of  Santa  Clara. 
Here  there  are  two  high  cliffs  which  are  visible  for  thirty  miles  ; 
their  white  ash-colored  stone  making  them  very  conspicuous. 
One  of  them  is  called  the  Shufinne.  A  view  of  this  rock  with 
the  caves  dug  out  of  it  may  be  seen  in  the  cut.  Mr.  Bandelier 
describes  it  in  the  following  words  : 

"Twelve  miles  from  the  Rio  Grande  the  light  colored  pumice-stone  and 
volcanic  ashes  of  which  the  mesas  are  mostly  formed  rise  in  abrupt  heights. 
On  the  north  side  a  castle-like  mesa  of  limited  extent,  detaches  itself  from 
the  foot  of  the  Pelado.  The  Tehuas  call  it  the  Shu-finne,  and  I  have  seen 
it  distinctly  from  a  distance  of  thirty  miles.  It  is  not  the  absolute  height  of 
the  rock  (I  should  estimate  it  at  not  over  150  feet  above  the  mesa,)  but  the 
almost  perfect  whiteness  of  its  precipitous  sides  and  lower  slopes  against 
the  dark  mass  of  mountains  that  makes  it  so  conspicuous.  The  perimeter 
of  the  Shu-finne  is  not  very  large,  and  its  base  is  surrounded  by  cedar  and 


26  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE, 

juniper  bushes  with  a  sprinkling  of  low  pinon  trees.  Two-thirds  of  the 
elevation  of  this  rock  consist  of  a  steep  slope  covered  with  debris  of  pumice 
and  volcanic  tufa.  Along  the  base  of  the  vertical  upper  rim  small  openings 
are  visible  which  are  the  doorways  of  artificial  caves.  The  Shu-finne  con 
tains  a  complete  cave-village,  burrowed  out  of  the  soft  rock  by  the  aid  of 
stone  implements." 

The  Pu-ye  lies  lower  than  the  Shu-finne  and,  as  seen  from  it, 
the  latter  looms  up  conspicuously  in  the  north,  like  a  bold 
white  castle.  The  caves  extend  at  irregular  intervals  in  a  line 
nearly  a  mile  long,  sometimes  in  two,  and  occasionally  three 
rows.  They  must  haw  been  capable  of  harboring  at  least 
1000  people.  In  some  places  beams  protrude  from  the  rock, 
showing  that  houses  have  been  built  against  it,  along  side  of 
cave-dwellings.  See  plate. 

South  of  the  Pu-ye  extends  a  level  space  whose  soil  appears 
to  be  quite  loamy  and  fertile,  and  on  this  level  are  traces  of 
garden  spots.  There  is  little  pottery  about  the  ruins.  In  some 
of  the  enclosed  spaces  or  garden  plots,  trees  have  grown  up. 
The  ruins,  as  well  as  the  almost  obliterated  artificial  caves  at  the 
base  of  the  mountain,  seem  to  be  much  older  than  cave-villages 
of  the  Shu-finne  and  Pu-ye,  as  some  of  the  caves  show  the  front 
completely  worn  away,  leaving  only  arched  indentations  in  the 
rock.  There  seem  to  be  vestiges  of  two  distinct  epochs 
marked  by  two  different  architectural  types,  artificial  caves  and 
communal  Pueblos  built  in  the  open  air. 

"The  ascent  to  the  caves  is  tedious,  for  the  slope  is  steep,  and  it  is  tire 
some  to  clamber  over  the  fragments  of  pumice  and  tufa  that  cover  it. 
Once  above  we  find  ourselves  before  small  doorways,  both  low  and  narrow, 
mostly  irregularly  oval.  I  measured  a  number  of  the  cells  and  found  their 
height  to  vary  from  i  Aj  (4  feet  10  inches)  to  2.03  m.  (6  feet  8  inches.)  Most 
of  them,  however,  were  over  5  feet  high.  The  outer  wall  was  usually  0.30111. 
thick  like  most  of  the  Pueblo  walls.  I  noticed  little  air-holes  and  also 
loop-holes  in  the  outer  walls,  but  no  fire-places,  although  as  Mr.  Stevenson 
a'so  observed,  the  evidences  of  fire  are  plain  in  almost  every  room.  There 
is  another  locality  of  artificial  cave-dwellings  only  three  miles  distant  from 
Shu-finne  called  Pu-ye.  It  is  also  a  mesa  of  pumice  rock,  and  rows  of 
p  ne  partly  cover  the  summit,  and  quite  a  large  Pueblo  ruin  whose  walls  of 
pumice  rise  to  a  height  of  two  stories  and  cover  the  top  of  the  cliff.  There 
was  also  a  level  platform  all  along  the  base  of  the  vertical  declivity,  wide 
enough  at  one  time  to  afford  room  for  at  least  one  cell  if  the  rock  were  used 
as  a  rear  wall.  This  rock  is  soft  and  friable,  and  can  easily  be  dug  into  by 
means  of  sharp  and  hard  substances,  such  as  obsidian  and  flinc.  The  vol 
canic  formation  of  the  mountain  affords  sufficient  quantities  of  both  materi 
als,  but  chiefly  of  obsidian.  Basalt  chisels  rudely  made  have  also  been 
found  in  connection  with  the  caves.  That  the  caves  are  wholly  artificial 
admits  of  no  doubt,  and  it  was  in  fact  easier  for  the  Indian  to  scrape  out 
his  dwellings  than  to  build  the  Pueblo  whose  ruins  crown  the  summit  of  the 
cliff.  Since  Mr.  J.  Stevenson  examined  the  Puye,  in  1880,  the  locality  has 
been  frequently  visited  and  but  few  specimens  of  broken  objects  are  ob- 
tainab'e.  I  refer  to  the  catalogue  published  by  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  for 
a  description  of  the  collections  made  on  the  spot  by  Mr.  Stevenson  in  1880. 
Mr.  Eldodt  has  in  his  possession  several  valuable  specimens  from  the  Pu- 
ye.  These  relics  have  nothing  to  distinguish  them  from  those  found  in 
Pueblo  ruins  in  general,  but  the  pottery  is  not  so  well  decorated  as  that  of 
Ojo  Caliente  and  Rito  Colorado.  Fragments  of  a  coarsely  glazed  variety 
are  very  abundant,  and  I  know  of  but  one  specimen  of  incised  ware  found 


CLIFF-HOUSES   AT   WALPI. 


These  houses  are  comparatively  modern  but  illustrate  the  development  of 

architecture;    First,  Cave-Houses  ;  Second,  Cliff-Dwellings  ; 

Third,  Pueblos. 


CLIFF-HOUSES   ON   THE   SAN   JUAN. 

These  houses  were  discovered  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  in  the  San  Juan 

Valley.     They  filled  the  niches  in  the  rock  but  connected  with 

one  another  and  constituted  an  abode  for  a 

family  or  a  clan. 


THE  AGE    OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  27 

at  or  about  the  artificial  caves.  The  vertical  wall  in  which  the  caves  have 
been  excavated  varies  in  height.  In  places  it  might  be  only  six  meters 
(twenty-five  feet);  in  others  it  attains  as  many  as  sixteen  (fifty  feet.)  The 
incline  on  the  other  hand  is  twenty  meters  (sixty-five  feet),  on  the  western 
and  as  many  as  fiftv  meters  (one  hundred  and  sixty  feet)  on  the  eastern 
end.  As  the  denuded  faces  of  the  cliff  are  those  of  the  south  and  east,  it 
follows  that  the  caves  extend  around  it  from  ihe  southwestern  to  the  north 
eastern  corner,  forming-  a  row  of  openings  along  the  base  of  the  vertical 
wall.  On  the  whole,  the  interior  of  these  cells  resembles  that  of  a  Pueblo 
room  now  of  ancient  type.  There  are  even  the  holes  where  poles  were 
fastened,  on  which  hides,  articles  of  dress,  or  dance  ornaments  were  hung, 
as  is  still  the  custom  of  the  Pueblo  Indians.  In  one  room  I  noticed  what 
may  have  been  a  stone  frame  for  the  metates.  The  interior  chambers  may 
have  been  used  for  store-rooms,  or  the  largest  of  them  may  have  also  served 
as  dormitories.  Every  feature  of  a  Pueblo  household  is  found  in  connection 
with  these  caves.  They  form  a  pueblo  in  the  rock,  and  there  are  also  a 
number  of  estufas.  The'cave-houses  and  the  highest  Pueblo  appear  to  have 
been  in  days  long  previous  to  the  coming  of  the  Europeans  the  homes  of  a 
portion  of  the  Tehua  tribe  whose  remnants  now  inhabit  the  village  of  Santa 
Clara.  The  country  south  of  this  interesting  spot  abounds  in  artificial  caves. 
In  nearly  every  gorge  the  cliffs  show  traces  of  such  abodes.  The  country 
west  of  the  Rio  Grande  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Rito  de  los  Frijoles  abounds 
with  caves  which  were  abandoned  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  invasion.  The 
cave  dwellings  of  the  Rito  are  very  much  like  those  already  described. 
The  caves  themselves  are  poor  in  relics  except  those  of  the  upper  tiers.  It 
appears  that  where  the  cliffs  rise  vertically,  terraced  houses  were  built  using 
the  rock  for  the  rear  wall.*  These  are  one,  two  and  even  three  stories 
high  and  leaned  against  the  cliff.  Sometimes  the  upper  story  consisted  of 
a  cave  and  the  lower  of  a  building." 

The  country  west  of  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Rito  de  los  Frijoles  is  v/ild,  with  deep  canyons  traversing  it 
like  gashes  cut  parallel  to  each  other  from  west  to  east.  They 
are  mostly  several  hundred  feet  in  depth,  and  in  places  ap 
proaching  a  thousand.  On  the  northern  walls,  facing  the 
south  or  east,  caves,  usually  much  ruined  are  met  with,  in  al 
most  every  one  of  them.  There  are  also  several  pueblo  ruins 
on  the  mesas,  about  which  I  have  only  learned  from  the  Indians 
that  they  were  Tehua  villages,  and  that  their  construction,  oc 
cupation  and  abandonment  antedate  perhaps  by  many  centuries 
the  times  of  Spanish  colonization. 

Another  locality  is  mentioned  by  Mr.  Bandelier  and  is  il 
lustrated  by  the  plate. 

Almost  opposite  San  Idlefonso  begins  the  deep  and  pictur 
esque  cleft  through  which  the  Rio  Grande  has  forced  its  way. 
It  is  called  "Canyon  Blanco/'  "Canyon  del  Norte,"  or  "White 
Rock  Canyon. "  Towering  masses  of  lava,  basalt  and  trap  form 
its  eastern  walls;  while  on  the  west  these  formations  are  cap 
ped,  a  short  distance  from  the  river,  by  soft  pumice  and  tufa. 

Major  Powell  also  speaks  of  cave-houses  which  were  con 
structed  in  the  midst  of  the  extinct  craters  of  San  Francisco 
mountain.  He  says: 

"In  the  walls  of  this  crater  many  caves  are  found,  and  here  again  a  vil 
lage  was  established,  the  caves  in  the  scoria  being  utilized  as  habitations  of 

*The  plate  opposite  page  30  accompanying  this  chapter  illustrates  the  point.      The  Caves  at 
Shufinne  and  the  Cliff-Houses  at  Rio  deChellyhave  houses  leaning  against  tbe  Cliff. 


28  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

men.  These  little  caves  were  fashioned  into  rooms  of  more  sym'metry  and 
convenience  than  originally  found,  and  the  openings  of  the  caves  were 
walled.  Nor  did  these  people  neglect  the  gods,  for  in  canyon  and  craters 
of  this  plateau  were  utilized  in  like  munner  as  homes  for  tribal  people,  and 
in  one  cave  far  to  the  south  a  fine  collection  of  several  hundred  pieces  of 
pottery  has  been  made," 

Major  Powell  speaks  of  Indians  who  built  pueblos  some 
times  of  the  red  sandstones  in  canyons  and  ofterier  of  blocks 
of  tufa.  He  says  this  material  can  be  worked  with  great  ease 
and  with  crude  tools.  Of  the  harder  lava  they  cut  out  blocks 
and  built  pueblos  two  and  three  stories  high.  The  blocks  are 
usually  20  inches  in  length,  8  inches  in  width  and  6  inches  in 
thickness.  These  Indians  left  their  pueblos  on  the  plateau 
where  the  Navajo  invasion  came,  and  constructed  cavate  homes 
for  themselves — that  is  they  excavated  chambers  on  the  cliffs 
which  were  composed  of  tufa.  On  the  faceof  the  cliff  hundreds 
of  feet  high  and  even  miles  in  length,  they  dug  out  chambers 
with  their  stone  tools,  these  chambers  being  little  rooms  eight  or 
ten  feet  in  diameter.  Sometimes  two  or  more  such  chambers 
connected.  Then  they  constructed  stairways  in  the  soft  rock, 
by  which  their  cavate  houses  were  reached;  and  in  these  rock 
shelters  they  lived  during  times  of  war.  Mr.  Mendeliff  speaks 
of  caves  and  cavate  lodges  which  are  near  boulder  sites,  and 
old  irrigating  ditches  on  the  Rio  Verde  and  Limestone  Creek. 
Here  the  almost  entire  absence  of  cliff-dwellings  and  the  great 
abundance  of  cavate  lodges  is  noticeable;  the  geographical 
formation  being  favorable  to  caves  and  unfavorable  to  cliff- 
dwellings,  whereas  on  the  Canyon  de  Chelly  there  are  hundreds 
of  cliff-dwellings  and  no  cave-lodges.  This  is  accounted  for  as 
an  accident  of  environment  where  the  conditions  are  reversed. 
He  says  : 

"The  relation  of  these  lodges  to  the  village  ruins  and  the  character  of 
the  sites  occupied  by  them,  supports  the  conclusion  that  they  were  farming 
out-posts,  probably  occupied  only  during  the  farming  season  according  to 
the  methods  followed  by  many  of  the  Pueblos  today,  and  that  the  defensive 
motive  had  little  or  no  influence  on  the  selection  of  the  site  or  the  character 
of  the  structures.  The  boulder-marked  sites  and  the  small  single-room  re 
mains  illustrate  other  phases  of  the  same  horticultural  methods,  methods 
somewhat  resembling  the  "intensive  culture,"  of  modern  agriculture,  but  re 
quiring  further  a  close  supervision  or  watching  of  the  crop  during  the  peri 
od  of  ripening.  As  the  area  of  tillable  land  in  the  Pueblo  region,  especially 
in  its  western  part  is  limited,  these  requirements  have  developed  a  class  of 
temporary  structures,  occupied  only  during  the  farming  season.  In  Tusay- 
an,  where  the  most  primitive  architecture  of  the  Pueblo  type  is  found,  these 
structures  are  generally  of  brush;  in  Canon  de  Chelly  they  are  cliff -dwell 
ings;  on  the  Rio  Verde  they  are  cavate  lodges,  boulder-marked  sites  and 
single  house  remains;  but  at  Zuni  they  have  reached  their  highest  develop 
ment  in  the  three  summer  villages  of  Ojo  Caliente,  Nutria  and  Pescado." 

Mr.  Brandelier  speaks  of  caves  and  cavate  houses  on  the 
upper  Gila  and  of  others  in  Chihuahua.  In  both  of  these 
localities  the  region  is  wild  and  mountainous,  just  such  as  we 
would  naturally  expect  to  find  occupied  by  cave-dwellers. 


CLIFF   FORTRESS   OX    THE    RIO   VERDE. 

Description  of  this  Cliff-Fortress  is  given  on  page  220. 


"THE  AGE"  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  29 

They  resembled  in  this  respect  the  home  of  the  Troglodgytes 
in  Europe. 

Sacrificial  caves,  and  spots  sacred  as  shrines  are  quite  nu 
merous  on,  and  about,  Thunder  Mountain,  and  a  host  of  legends 
and  folk  tales  cluster  around  the  towering  Table  Rock.  There 
are  also  pictographs  and  symbols  near  the  caves  and  cliff- 
dwellings  of  the  San  Juan  and  the  west  of  the  Rio  Grande;  but 
these  cave-lodges  seem  to  be  destitute  of  them,  showing  that 
they  were  only  temporary  places  of  refuge.  Concealment  was 
one  object.  The  following  is  the  description  of  the  cavate 
houses  on  the  Upper  Gila: 

"These  buildings  occupy  four  caverns,  the  second  of  which  towards  the 
east  is  ten  meters  high.  The  western  cave  communicates  with  the  othtrs 
only  from  the  outside,  while  the  three  eastern  ones  are  separated  by  huge 
pillars  behind  which  are  natural  passages  from  one  cave  to  the  other.  The 
height  of  the  floor  above  the  bed  of  the  creek  is  fifty-five  meters,  and  the 
ascent  is  steep,  in  some  places  barely  passable.  To  one  coming  from  the 
mouth  of  the  cliff  the  caves  become  visible  only  after  he  has  passed  them, 
so  that  they  are  well  concealed.  Higher  up  the  several  branches  through 
whose  union  the  Gila  River  is  formed,  cave-houses  and  cave-villages  are 
not  uncommon.  Mr.  Henshaw  has  published  the  description  of  one  situ 
ated  on  Diamond  Creek,  to  which  description  I  refer.  As  the  gorges  become 
wilder  and  the  expanses  of  tillable  land  disappear,  the  rocks  and  cliffs  were 
resorted  to  as  retreats  and  refuges.  Whether  the  cave-dwellings  and  cliff- 
houses  were  occupied  previous  to  the  open-air  villages  along  the  Mimbres, 
or  whether  they  were  the  last  refuges  of  tribes  driven  from  their  homes  in 
valley,  it  is  of  course  not  possible  to  surmise." 

According  to  Mr.  Bandelier  the  cave-dwellings  are  to  be 
found  as  far  south  as  the  Casas  Grandes  in  Chihuahua.  There 
seems  to  have  been  a  variety  of  structures,  some  of  them  very 
elaborate  and  bearing  the  type  of  architecture  which  is  com 
mon  in  Mexico,  others  very  rude,  scarcely  any  better  than  that 
which  the  wild  Indians  would  construct.  The  region  is  moun 
tainous  and  so  was  occupied  by  different  tribes,  the  Apaches 
having  made  it  a  resort.  The  following  is  a  description  of  the 
locality: 

"The  so-called  Puerto  de  San  Diego,  a  very  picturesque  mountain  pass, 
ascends  steadily  for  a  distance  of  five  or  six  miles.  On  its  northern  side 
rise  towering  slopes,  the  crests  of  which  are  overgrown  with  pines.  In  the 
south  a  ridge  of  great  elevation  terminates  in  crags  and  pinnacles.  The 
trail  winds  upward  in  a  cleft,  and  is  bordered  by  thickets  consisting  of  oak, 
smaller  pines,  cedars,  mezcalagava  and  tall  yucca.  As  we  rise  the  view- 
spreads  out  towards  the  southeast  and  east,  and  from  the  crest  the  plain 
below  and  the  valley  of  Casas  Grandes,  with  bald  mountains  beyond,  appear 
like  atopographical  map.  Turning  to  the  west,  a  few  steps  carry  us  into 
lofty  pine  woods,  where  the  view  is  shut  in  by  stately  trees  surrounding  us 
on  all  sides.  The  air  is  cool;  deep  silence  re  gns;  we  are  in  the  solitudes  of 
the  eastern  Sierra  Madre.  These  mountains  fastnesses  are  well  adapted  to 
the  residence  of  small  clusters  of  agricultural  Indians  seeking  for  security. 
I  therefore  neither  saw  nor  heard  of  ruins  of  larger  villages,  but  cave- 
dwellings  were  frequently  spoken  of.  Some  very  remarkable  ones  are  said 
to  exist  near  the  Piedras'  Yerdes,  about  two  day's  journeying  from  Casas 
Grandes.  I  saw  only  the  cave-dwellings  on  the  Arroyo  del  Nombre  de 
Dios,  not  far  from  its  junction  with  the  Arroyo  de  los  Pilares.  They  lie 
about  thirty-five  to  forty  miles  southwest  of  Casas-Grandes.  The  arroyo 
flows  through  a  pretty  vale  lined  on  its  south  side  by  stately  pines,  behind 


30  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

which  picturesque  rocks  rise  in  pillars,  crags  and  towers.  The  rock  is  a 
reddish  breccia  or  conglomerate.  Many  caves,  large  and  small,  though 
mostly  small,  open  in  the  walls  of  these  cliffs,  which  are  not  high,  measur 
ing  nowhere  over  two  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  valley.  The 
dwellings  are  contained  in  the  most  spacious  of  these  cavities,  which  lie 
about  two  miles  from  the  outlet  of  the  arroyo.  They  are  so  well  concealed 
that,  along  the  banks  of  the  stream,  it  is  easy  to  pass  by  without  seeing 
them. 

The  point  which  we  make  is  this,  that  while  the  cliff-dwell 
ings  differ  from  the  cavate  lodges  in  many  respects  yet  they 
are  in  the  strongest  contrast  with  the  European  caves  while 
they  belong  to  the  same  age  with  the  lake-dwellings  and  the 
towers  and  nirhages,and  show  about  the  same  style  of  architec 
ture,  and  exhibit  the  same  grade  of  advancement  and  prove  the 
position  which  was  taken  at  the  outset,  that  the  cliff-dwellers 
marked  one  extreme  of  social  progress  and  the  cave-dwellers 
or  troglodytes  of  Europe  marked  the  other,  and  the  whole 
series  of  prehistoric  structures  and  relics  may  be  embraced  be 
tween  them. 

We  see  from  this  that  the  caves  and  cave-houses  and  cliff- 
dwellings  were  widely  distributed  and  numerous,  but  they  dif 
fer  very  materially  from  the  caves  of  Europe.  If  there  were  no 
other  proof  of  this  it  would  be  enough  to  examine  the  cut  which 
represent  the  cliff-dwellings  situated  in  the  Canyon  de  Chelley, 
and  compare  it  with  the  cuts  which  represent  the  caves  of 
Europe.  This  cliff-dwelling  was  first  discovered  by  Lieut  J.  H. 
Simpson  in  1849  a°d  has  been  often  visited  and  described  by 
other  explorers.  It  well  represents  its  class.  If  we  take  the 
series  of  cuts  given  with  this  paper  and  compare  the  caves  of 
Europe  on  one  side  with  the  cavate  lodges  and  the  cliff-dwell 
ings  on  the  other,  we  shall  find  the  difference  between  the 
European  caves  and  the  cliff-dwelings  in  America. 


MUKUNTUWEAP    CANYON. 


HIGH   HOUSE   IN  THE   CLIFFS. 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  31 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS." 

There  are  two  distinct  portions  of  the  basin  of  the  Colorado, 
a  desert  portion  below  and  a  plateau  above.  The  lower  third,  or 
desert  portion  of  the  basin,  is  but  little  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
though  here  and  there,  ranges  of  mountains  rise  to  an  altitude 
of  from  3,000  to  6,000  feet.  This  part  of  the  valley  is  bounded 
on  the  northeast  by  a  line  of  cliffs  which  present  a  bold,  often 
vertical  step,  hundreds  or  thousands  of  leet,  to  the  table  lands 
above.  On  the  California  side  a  vast  desert  stretches  westward, 
past  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  nearly  to  the  shore  of 
the  Pacific.  Between  the  desert  and  the  sea  a  narrow  belt  of 
valley,  hill,  and  mountain  of  wonderful  beauty  is  found.  Over 
this  coastal  zone  there  falls  a  balm  distilled  from  the  great  ocean, 
as  gentle  showers  and  refreshing  dews  bathe  the  land.  When 
rains  come  the  emerald  hills  laugh  with  delight  as  bourgeoning 
bloom  is  spread  in  the  sunlight.  When  the  rains  have  ceased 
all  the  verdure  turns  to  gold.  Then  slowly  the  hills  are  brinded 
until  the  rains  come  again,  when  verdure  and  bloom  again  peer 
through  the  tawny  wreck  of  last  years's  greenery.  North  of  the 
Gulf  of  California  the  desert  is  known  as  "Coahuila  Valley,"  the 
most  desolate  region  on  the  continent. 

On  the  Arizona  side  of  the  river,  desert  plains  are  interrupted 
by  desert  mountains.  Far  to  the  eastward  the  country  rises 
until  the  Sierra  Madre  are  reached  in  New  Mexico,  where  these 
mountains  divide  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  from  the  Rio  Grande 
del  Norte.  Here  in  New  Mexico  the  Gila  River  has  its  source. 
Some  of  its  tributaries  rise  in  the  mountains  to  the  south,  in  the 
territory  belonging  to  the  Republic  of  Mexico;  but  the  Gila 
gathers  the  greater  part  of  its  waters  from  a  great  plateau  on  the 
northeast.  Its  sources  are  everywhere  in  pine-clad  mountains  and 
plateaus,  but  all  of  the  affluents  quickly  descend  into  the  desert 
valley  below,  through  which  the  Gila  winds  its  way  westward  to 
the  Colorado.  In  times  of  continued  drought  the  bed  of  the  Gila 
is  dry,  but  the  region  is  subject  to  great  and  violent  storms,  and 
floods  roll  down  from  the  heights  with  marvelous  precipitation, 
carrying  devastation  on  their  way. 

Where  the  Colorado  River  forms  the  boundary  between  Califor 
nia  and  Arizona  it  cuts  through  a  number  of  volcarwc  rocks  by 
black,  yawning  canons.  Between  these  canons  the  river  has  a 

*This  chapter  was  written  by  Major].  W.  Powell,  and  first  printed  intheCanyon>  wj 
the  Colorado. 


32  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

low  but  rather  narrow  flood  plain,  with  cottonwood  groves  scat 
tered  here  and  there,  and  a  chaparral  of  mesquite,  bearing  beans 
and  thorns. 

The  region  of  country  lying  on  either  side  of  the  Colorado 
for  600  miles  of  its  course  above  the  gulf,  stretching  to  Coahuila 
Valley  below  on  the  west,  and  to  the  highlands,  where  the  Gila 
heads,  on  the  east,  is  one  of  singular  characteristics.  The  plains 
and  valleys  are  low,  arid,  hot,  and  naked,  and  the  volcanic 
mountains  scattered  here  and  there  are  lone  and  desolate. 
During  the  long  months  the  sun  pours  its  heat  upon  the  rocks 
and  sands,  untempered  by  clouds  above  or  forest  shades  beneath. 
The  springs  are  so  few  in  number  that  their  names  are  house 
hold  words  in  every  Indian  rancheria,  and  every  settler's  home; 
as  there  are  no  brooks,  no  creeks,  and  no  rivers  but  the  trunk 
of  the  Colorado  and  the  trunk  of  the  Gila. 

The  desert  valley  of  the  Colorado,  which  has  been  described 
as  distinct  from  the  plateau  region  above,  is  the  home  of  many 
Indian  tribes.  Away  up  at  the  sources  of  the  Gila,  where  the 
pines  and  cedars  stand,  and  where  creeks  and  valleys  are  found, 
is  a  part  of  the  Apache  land.  These  tribes  extend  far  south  into 
the  Republic  of  Mexico.  The  Apaches  are  intruders  in  this 
country,  having  at  some  time,  perhaps  many  centuries  ago, 
migrated  from  British  America.  They  speak  the  Athapascan 
language.  The  Apaches  and  Navajos  are  the  American  Bedouins. 
On  their  way  from  the  far  north  they  left  several  colonies  in 
Washington,  Oregon,  and  California.  They  came  to  the  country 
on  foot,  but  since  the  Spanish  invasion  they  have  become  skilled 
horsemen.  They  are  wily  warriors  and  implacable  enemies, 
feared  by  all  other  tribes.  They  are  hunters,  warriors,  and 
priests,  these  professions  not  yet  being  differentiated.  The  cliffs 
of  the  region  have  many  caves,  in  which  these  people  perform 
their  religious  rites.  The  Sierra  Madre  formerly  supported 
abundant  game,  and  the  little  Sonora  deer  was  common.  Bears 
and  mountain  lions  were  once  found  in  great  numbers,  and  they 
put  the  courage  and  prowess  of  the  Apaches  to  a  severe  test. 
Huge  rattlesnakes  are  common,  and  the  rattlesnake  god  is  one 
of  the  deities  of  the  tribes. 

The  low  desert,  with  its  desolate  mountains,  which  has  thus 
been  described,  is  plainly  separated  from  the  upper  region  oi 
plateau  by  the  Mogollon  Escarpment,  which,  beginning  in  the 
Sierre  Madre  of  New  Mexico,  extend  northwestward  across  the 
Colorado  far  into  Utah,  where  it  ends  on  the  margin  of  the 
great  basin.  See  Plate. 

The  rise  by  this  escarpment  varies  from  3,000  to  more  than 
4,000  feet.  The  step  from  the  lowlands  to  the  highlands,  which 
is  here  called  the  Mogollon  Escarpment,  is  not  a  simple  line  of 
cliffs,  but  is  a  complicated  and  irregular  fagade  presented  to  the 
southwest.  Its  different  portions  have  been  named  by  the 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  35 

people  living  below,  as  distinct  mountains,  as  Shiwits  Mountains, 
Mogollon  Mountains,  Final  Mountains,  Sierra  Calitro,  etc.,  but 
they  all  rise  to  the  summit  of  the  same  great  plateau  region. 

This  high  region  on  the  east,  north  and  west,  is  set  with  ranges 
of  snow-clad»mountains  attaining  an  altitude  above  the  sea  varying 
from  S,ooo  to  14,000  ieet.  All  winter  long  snow  falls  on  its  moun 
tain-crested  rim,  filling  the  gorges,  half  burying  the  forests,  and 
covering  the  crags  and  peaks  with  a  mantle  woven  by  the  winds 
from  the  waves  of  the  sea.  When  the  summer  sun  comes  this 
snow  melts  and  tumbles  down  the  mountain  sides  in  millions  of 
cascades.  A  million  cascade  brooks  unite  to  form  a  thousand 
torrent  creeks;  a  thousand  torrent  creeks  unite  to  form  half  a  hun 
dred  rivers  beset  with  cataracts;  halt  a  hundred  roaring  rivers  unite 
to  form  the  Colorado,  which  rolls,  a  mad,  turbid  stream,  into  the 
Gulf  of  California.  Consider  the  action  of  one  of  these  streams. 
Its  source  is  in  the  mountains,  where  the  snow  falls;  its  course 
through  the  arid  plains.  Now,  if  at  the  river's  flood,  storms  were 
falling  on  the  plains,  its  channel  would  be  cut  but  little  faster  than 
the  adjacent  country  would  be  washed,  and  the  general  level  would 
thus  be  preserved;  but  under  the  conditions  here  mentioned  the 
river  continually  deepens  its  beds;  so  all  the  streams  cut  deeper 
and  still  deeper,  until  their  banks  are  towering  cliffs  of  solid  rock. 
These  deep,  narrow  gorges  are  called  canons.  For  more  than  a 
thousand  miles  along  its  course  the  Colorado  has  cut  for  itself  such 
a  canon;  but  at  some  few  points,  where  lateral  streams  join  it,  the 
canon  is  broken  and  these  narrow,  transverse  valleys  divide  into 
a  series  of  canons.  The  Virgen,  Kanab,  Paria,  Escalante,  Fre 
mont,  San  Rafael,  Price  and  Uinta  on  the  west,  the  Grand,  White, 
Yampa,  San  Juan  and  Colorado  Chiquito  on  the  east,  have  also  cut 
for  themselves  such  narrow,  winding  gorges,  or  deep  canons. 
Every  river  entering  these  has  cut  another  canyon;  every  lateral 
creek  has  cut  a  canon;  every  brook- runs  in  a  canon;  every  rill 
born  of  shower  and  born  again  of  a  shower  and  living  only  during 
these  showers,  has  cut  for  itself  a  canon;  so  that  the  whole  upper 
portion  of  the  basin  of  the  Colorado  is  traversed  by  a  labyrinth  of 
these  deep  gorges. 

After  the  canons,  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  country 
are  the  long  lines  of  cliffs.  These  are  bold  escarpments  scores  or 
hundreds  of  miles  in  length, — great  geographic  steps,  often 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  feet  in  altitude,  presenting  steep 
faces  of  rock,  often  vertical.  Having  climbed  one  of  these 
steps,  you  may  descend  by  a  gentle,  sometimes  imperceptible, 
slope  to  the  foot  of  another.  They  thus  present  a  series  of  ter 
races,  the  steps  of  which  are  well  defined  escarpments  of  rock. 
The  lateral  extension  of  such  a  line  of  cliffs  is  usually  very 
irregular;  sharp  salients  are  projected  on  the  plains  below, 
and  deep  recesses  are  cut  into  the  terraces  above.  Intermittent 
streams  coming  down  the  cliffs  have  cut  many  canons  or  canon 


36 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


villages,  by  which  the  traveler  may  pass  from  the  plain  below  to 
the  terrace  above.  By  these  gigantic  stairways  he  may  ascend 
to  high  plateaus,  covered  with  forests  of  pine  and  fir. 

From  the  Grand  Canon  ot  the  Colorado  a  great  plateau 
extends  southeastward  through  Arizona  nearly  to  the  line  of 
New  Mexico,  where  this  elevated  land  merges  into  the  Sierra 
Madre.  The  general  surface  of  this  plateau  is  from  6,000  to 
8,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Various  tributaries  of  the 
Gila  have  their  sources  in  this  escarpment,  and  before  entering  the 
desolate  valley  below  they  run  in  beautiful  canons  which  they 
have  carved  for  themselves  in  the  margin  of  the  plateau.  Some 
times  these  canons  are  in  the  sandstones  and  limestones,  which 


F^ 
1 


Ruins  at  the  Head  of  McElmo  Canyon. 

constitute  the  platform  of  the  great  elevated  region  called  the 
San  Francisco  Plateau.  The  escarpment  is  caused  by  a  fault,  the 
great  block  of  the  upper  side  being  lifted  several  thousand  feet 
above  the  valley  region.  Through  the  fissure  lavas  poured  out, 
and  in  many  places  the  escarpment  is  concealed  by  sheets  of  lava. 
The  canons  in  these  lava  beds  are  often  of  great  interest.  On  the 
plateau  a  number  of  volcanic  mountains  are  found,  and  black 
cinder  cones  are  scattered  in  profusion. 

Through  the  forest  lands  are  many  beautiful  prairies  and  glades 
that  in  midsummer  are  decked  with  gorgeous  wild  flowers.  The 
rains  of  the  region  give  source  to  few  perennial  streams,  but 
intermittent  streams  have  carved  deep  gorges  in  the  plateau,  so 
th'at  it  is  divided  into  many  blocks.  The  upper  surface,  although 
forest  clad  and  covered  with  beautiful  grasses,  is  almost  destitute 
of  water.  A  few  springs  are  found;  but  they  are  far  apart,  and 
some  of  the  volcanic  craters  hold  lakelets.  The  limestone  and 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  37 

basaltic  rocks  sometimes  hold  pools  of  water;  and  where  the 
basins  are  deep  the  waters  are  perennial.  Such  pools  are  known 
as  "water  pockets." 

This  is  the  great  timber  region  of  Arizona.  Not  many  years 
ago  it  was  a  vast  park  for  elk,  deer,  antelope  and  bears,  and 
mountain  lions  were  abundant.  This  is  the  last  home  of  the 
wild  turkey  in  the  United  States,  for  they  are  still  found  here  in 
great  numbers.  San  Francisco  Peak  is  the  highest  of  these  vol 
canic  mountains,  and  about  it  are  grouped  in  an  irregular  way 
many  volcanic  cones,  one  of  which  presents  some  remarkable 
characteristics.  A  portion  of  the  cone  is  of  bright  reddish  cin 
ders,  while  the  adjacent  rocks  are  of  black  basalt.  The  contrast 
in  the  colors  is  so  great  that  on  viewing  the  mountain  from  a 
distance  the  red  cinders  seem  to  be  on  fire.  From  this  circum 
stance  the  cone  has  been  named  Sunset  Peak.  When  distant  from 
it  ten  or  twenty  miles  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  effect  is  pro 
duced  by  contrasting  colors,  for  the  peak  seems  to  glow  with  a 
light  of  its  own.  A  few  miles  south  of  San  Francisco  Peak 
there  is  an  intermittent  stream  known  as  Walnut  Creek.  This 
stream  runs  in  a  deep  gorge,  600  to  800  feet  below  the  general 
surface.  The  stream  has  cut  its  way  through  the  limestone  and 
through  a  series  of  .sandstones,  and  bold  walls  of  rock  are  pre 
sented  on  either  side.  East  of  San  Francisco  Peak  there  is 
another  low  volcanic  cone,  composed  of  ashes  which  have  been 
slightly  cemented  by  the  processes  of  time,tbut  which  can  be 
worked  with  great  ease.  On  this  cone  another  tribe  of  Indians 
made  its  village.  For  the  purpose  they  sunk  shafts  into  the 
easily  worked,  but  partially  consolidated  ashes,  and  after  pene 
trating  from  the  surface  three  or  four  feet  they  enlarged  the 
chambers  so  as  to  make  them  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  diameter.  In 
such  a  chamber  they  made  a  little  fire-place,  its  chimney  running 
up  on  one  side  of  the  well-hole  by  which  the  chamber  was 
entered.  Often  they  excavated  smaller  chambers  connected  with 
the  larger,  so  that  sometimes  two,  three,  four  or  even  five  smaller 
connecting  chambers  are  grouped  about  a  large  central  room. 
The  arts  of  these  people  resembled  those  of  the  people  who 
dwelt  in  Walnut  canon.  One  thing  more  is  worthy  of  special 
notice.  On  the  very  top  of  the  cone  they  cleared  off  a  space 
for  a  court-yard,  or  assembly  square,  and  about  it  they  erected 
booths,  and  within  the  square  a  space  of  ground  was  prepared 
with  a  smooth  floor,  on  which  they  performed  the  ceremonies  of 
their  religion  and  danced  to  the  gods  in  prayer  and  praise. 

The  Little  Colorado  is  a  marvelous  river.  In  seasons  of  great 
rains  it  is  a  broad  but  shallow  torrent  of  mud;  in  seasons  of 
drought  it  dwindles,  and  sometimes  entirely  disappears  along 
portions  of  its  course.  The  upper  tributaries  usually  run  in 
beautiful  box  canons.  Then  the  river  flows  through  a  low,  des 
olate,  bad-land  valley,  and  the  river  of  mud  is  broad  but  shallow, 


38  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

except  in  seasons  of  great  floods.  But  fifty  miles  or  more  above 
the  junction  of  this  stream  with  the  Colorado  River  proper,  it 
plunges  into  a  canon  with  limestone  walls,  and  steadily  this 
canon  increases  in  depth,  until,  at  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  it 
has  walls  more  than  4,000  feet  in  height.  This  valley  of  the 
Little  Colorado  is  also  the  site  of  many  ruins,  and  the  villages 
or  towns  found  in  such  profusion  were  of  much  larger  size  than 
those  on  the  San  Francisco  Plateau.  Some  of  the  pueblo-build 
ing  peoples  still  remain.  The  Zuni  Indians  still  occupy  their 
homes,  and  they  prove  to  be  a  most  interesting  people.  They 
have  cultivated  the  soil  from  time  immemorial.  They  build 
their  houses  of  stone,  and  line  them  with  plaster;  and  they  have 
many  interesting  arts,  being  skilled  potters  and  deft  weavers. 
The  seasons  are  about  equally  divided  between  labor,  worship, 
anti  play. 

A  hundred  miles  to  the  northwest  of  the  Zuni  pueblo  are  the 
seven  pueblos  of  Tusayan :  Oraibi',  Shumopavi,  Shupaulovi, 
Mashoncrnavi,  Sichumovi,  Walpi,  and  Hano.  These  towns  are 
built  on  high  cliffs.  The  people  speak  a  language  radically 
different  from  that  of  the  Zuni,  but,  with  the  exception  of  that 
ot  the  inhabitants  of  Hano,  closely  allied  to  that  of  the  Utes, 
The  people  of  Hano  are  Tewans,  whose  ancestors  moved  from 
the  Rio  Grande  to  Tusayan  during  the  great  Pueblo  revolt 
against  Spanish  authority  in  1680-96.  In  these  mountains, 
plateaux,  mesas,  and  canons,  the  Navajo  Indians  have  their  home. 
The  Navajos  are  intruders  in  this  country.  They  belong  to  the 
Athapascan  stock  of  British  America  and  speak  an  Athapascan 
language,  like  the  Apaches  of  the  Sierra  Madre  country.  They 
are  a  stately,  athletic,  and  bold  people.  While  yet  this  country 
was  a  part  of  Mexico  they  acquired  great  herds  of  horses  and 
flocks  of  sheep,  and  lived  in  opulence  compared  with  many  of 
the  other  tribes  of  North  America. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  ruins  of  America  are  found  in 
this  region.  The  ancient  pueblos  found  here  are  of  superior 
structure,  but  they  were  all  built  by  a  people  whom  the  Navajos 
displaced  when  they  migrated  from  the  far  north.  Wherever 
there  is  water,  near  by  an  ancient  ruin  may  be  found,  and  these 
ruins  are  gathered  about  centers,  the  centers  being  larger  pueb 
los  and  the  scattered  ruins  representing  single  houses.  The 
ancient  people  lived  in  villages,  or  pueblos,  but  during  the  grow 
ing  season  they  scattered  about  by  the  springs  and  streams  to 
cultivate  the  soil  by  irrigation,  and  wherever  there  was  a  little 
farm  or  garden  patch,  there  was  built  a  summer  house  of  stone. 
When  times  of  war  came,  especially  when  they  were  invaded  by 
the  Navajos,  these  ancient  people  left  their  homes  in  the  pueblos 
and  by  the  streams,  and  constructed  temporary  homes  in  the 
cliffs  and  canon  walls.  Such  cliff  ruins  are  abundant  through 
out  the  region.  Ultimately  the  ancient  pueblo  peoples  sue- 


¥ 

'' 

•  tt  - 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  41 

cumbed  to  the  prowess  of  the  Navajos  and  were  driven  out.  A 
part  joined  related  tribes  in  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande;  others 
joined  the  Zuni  and  the  people  of  Tusayan  ;  and  still  others 
pushed  on  beyond  the  Little  Colorado  to  the  San  Francisco 
Plateau  and  far  down  into  the -valley  of  the  Gila. 

Farther  to  the  east,  on  the  border  of  the  region  which  we 
have  described,  beyond  the  drainage  of  the  Little  Colorado  and 
San  Juan  and  within  the  drainage  of  the  Rio  Grande,  there  lies 
an  interesting  plateau  region,  which  forms  a  part  of  the  Plateau 
Province  and  w'hich  is  worthy  of  description.  This  is  the  great 
Tewan  Plateau,  which  carries  several  groups  of  mountains.  The 
plateau  itself  is  intersected  with  many  deep,  narrow  canons, 
having  walls  of  lava,  volcanic  dust,  or  tufa,  and  red  sandstone. 
It  is  a  beautiful  region.  The  low  mesas  on  every  side  are  almost 
treeless  and  are  everywhere  deserts,  but  the  great  Tewan  Plateau 
is  booned  with  abundant  rains,  and  it  is  thus  a  region  of  forests 
and  meadows,  divided  into  blocks  by  deep  and  precipitous 
canyons  and  crowned  with  cones  that  rise  to  an  altitude  of  from 
10,000  to  12,000  feet.  For  many  centuries  the  Tewan  Plateau, 
with  its  canons  below  and  its  meadows  and  forests  above,  has 
been  the  home  of  tribes  of  Tewan  Indians,  who  built  pueblos, 
sometimes  of  red  sandstones,  in  the  canons,  but  often  of  blocks 
of  tufa,  or  volcanic  dust.  This  light  material  can  be  worked 
with  great  ease,  and  with  crude  tools  of  the  harder  lavas  they 
cut  out  blocks  of  the  tufa  and  with  them  built  pueblos  two  or 
three  stones  high.  The  blocks  are  usually  about  twenty  inches 
in  length,  eight  inches  in  width  and  six  inches  in  thickness, 
though  they  vary  somewhat  in  size.  On  the  volcanic  cones 
which  dominate  the  country  these  people  built  shrines  and  wor 
shiped  their  gods  with  offerings  of  meal  and  water  and  with 
prayer  and  symbols  made  of  the  plumage  of  the  birds  of  the  air. 

When  the  Navajo  invasion  was  long  past,  civilized  men,  as 
Spanish  invaders,  entered  this  country  from  Mexico,  and  again 
the  Tewan  people  left  their  homes  on  the  mesas  and  by  the 
canons  to  find  safety  in  the  cavate  dwellings  of  the  cliffs;  and  now 
the  archaeologist  in  the  study  of  this  country  discovers  these 
two  periods  of  construction  and  occupation  of  the  cave  dwellings 
of  the  Tewan  Indians. 

To  the  east  of  this  plateau  region,  with  its  mesas  and  buttes 
and  its  volcanic  mountains,  stand  the  southern  Rocky  Mountains, 
or  Park  Mountains,  a  system  of  north  and  south  ranges.  These 
ranges  are  huge  billows  in  the  crust  of  the  earth,  out  of  which 
mountains  have  been  carved.  The  parks  of  Colorado  are  great 
valley  basins  enclosed  by  these  ranges  and  over  their  surfaces 
moss  agates  are  scattered.  The  mountains  are  covered  with 
dense  forests  and  are  rugged  and  wild.  The  higher  peaks  rise 
above  the  timber  line  and  are  naked  gorges  of  rocks.  In  them 
the  Platte  and  Arkansas  rivers  head  and  flow  eastward  to  join 


42  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

the  Missouri  river.  Here  also  heads  the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte, 
which  flows  southward  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  still  to  the 
west  head  many  streams  which  pour  into  the  Colorado  waters, 
destined  to  the  Gulf  of  California.  Throughout  all  this  region 
drained  by  the  Grand,  White,  and  Yampa  rivers,  there  are  many 
beautiful  parks.  The  great  mountain  slopes  are  still  covered  with 
primeval  forests.  Springs,  brooks,  rivers,  and  lakes  abound,  and 
the  waters  are  filled  with  trout.  Not  many  years  ago  the  hills 
were  covered  with  game — elks  on  the  mountains,  deer  on  the 
plateaus,  antelope  in  the  valleys,  and  beavers  building  their 
cities  on  the  streams.  The  plateaus  are  covered  with  low, 
dwarf  oaks  and  many  shrubs  bearing  berries,  and  in  the  chap 
arral  of  this  region  cinnamon  bears  are  still  abundant.  From 
time  immemorial  the  region  drained  by  the  Grand,  White  and 
Yampa  rivers  has  been  the  home  of  Ute  tribes  of  the 
Shoshonean  family  of  Indians.  These  Indians  built  their 
shelters  of  boughs  and  bark,  and  to  some  extent  lived  in  tents 
made  of  the  skins  of  animals.  They  never  cultivated  the  soil, 
but  gathered  wild  seeds  and  roots  and  were  famous  hunters  and 
fishermen.  As  the  region  abounds  in  game,  these  tribes  have 
always  been  well  clad  in  skins  and  furs.  The  men  wore  blouses, 
loincloth,  leggins  and  moccasins,  and  the  women  dressed  in  short 
kilts.  It  is  curious  to  notice  the  effect  which  the  contact  of 
civilization  has  had  upon  these  women's  dress.  Even  twenty 
years  ago  they  had  lengthened  their  skirts,  and  dresses  made  of 
buckskin,  fringed  with  furs  and  beaded  with  elk  teeth  were  worn 
so  long  that  they  trailed  on  the  ground.  Neither  men  nor 
women  wore  any  head  dress  except  on  festival  occasions  for 
decorations,  then  the  women  wore  little  basket  bonnets  deco 
rated  with  feathers,  and  the  men  wore  headdresses  made  of  the 
skins  of  ducks,  geese,  eagles,  and  other  large  birds.  Sometimes 
they  would  prepare  the  skin  of  the  head  of  the  elk  or  deer,  or  of 
a  bear  or  mountain  lion  or  wolf,  for  a  head  dress.  For  very  cold 
weather  both  men  and  women  were  provided  with  togas  for  their 
protection.  Sometimes  the  men  would  have  a  bearskin  or  elk- 
skin  for  a  toga;  more  often  they  made  their  togas  by  piecing 
together  the  skins  of  wolves,  mountain  lions,  wolverines,  wild 
cats,  beavers  and  otters.  The  women  sometimes  made  theirs  of 
fawnskins.  but  rabbitskin  robes  were  far  more  common.  These 
rabbitskins  were  tanned  with  the  fur  on  and  cut  into  strips,  then 
cords  were  made  of  the  fiber  of  wild  flax  or  yucca  plants  and 
round  these  cords  the  strips  of  rabbitskin  were  rolled  so  that 
they  made  long  ropes  of  rabbitskin  coils  with  a  central  cord  of 
vegetal  fiber. 

The  Ute  Indians,  like  the  Indians  of  North  America,  have  a 
wealth  of  mythic  stories.  The  heroes  of  these  stories  are  the 
beasts,  birds  and  reptiles  of  the  region,  and  the  themes  of  the 
stories  are  the  doings  of  these  mythic  beasts — the  ancients  from 


PA-RUN-U-WEAP   CANYON. 
From  "Canyons  of  the  Colorado."  Flood  6*  Vincent,  AfeadviUe,  Pa. 


CLIFF  NEAR  FORT  WINGATE. 


TOYALONE  CLIFF,  NEAR  ZUNI. 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  45 

whom  the  present  animals  have  descended  and  degenerated. 
The  primeval  animals  were  wonderfnl  beings,  as  related  in  the 
the  lore  of  the  Utes.  They  were  the  creators  and  controllers  of 
all  the  phenomena  of  nature  known  to  these  simple-minded  peo 
ple.  The  Utes  were  zootheists.  Each  little  tribe  has  its  Sha 
man,  of  medicine  man,  who  is  the  historian,  priest  and  doctor. 
The  lore  of  this  Shaman  is  composed  of  mythic  tales  of  ancient 
animals. 

The  Indians  are  skillful  actors  and  they  represent  the  parts  of 
beasts  or  reptiles,  wearing  masks  and  imitating  the  ancient  zoic 
gods.  In  temples  walled  with  gloom  of  night  and  illumed  by 
torch  fires  the  people  gather  about  their  Shaman,  who  tells  and 
acts  the  stories  of  creation  recorded  in  their  traditional  bible. 
When  fever  prostrates  one  of  the  tribe  the  Shaman  gathers  the 
actors  about  the  striken  man  and  with  wierd  dancing,  wild 
ululation  and  ectatic  exhortation  the  evil  spirit  is  driven  from  the 
body.  Then  they  have  their  ceremonies  to  pray  for  the  forest 
fruits,  for  abundant  game,  for  successful  hunting  and  for  prosperity 
in  war. 

The  stupendous  cliffs  by  which  the  plateaus  are  bounded  are 
are  of  indescribable  grandeaur  and  beauty.  The  cliffs  bound 
ing  the  Kaibab  plateau  descend  on  either  side  and  this  is  the 
cultimating  portion  of  the  region.  All  the  other  plateaus  are 
terraces,  with  cliffs  ascending  on  the  one  side  and  descending  on 
the  other.  Some  of  the  tables  carry  dead  volcanoes  on  their 
backs  that  are  towering  mountains,  and  all  of  them  are  dissected 
by  canyons  that  are  gorges  of  profound  depth.  But  every  one 
of  these  plateaus  has  characteristics  peculiar  to  itself  and  is 
worthy  of  its  own  chapter.  On  the  north  there  is  a  pair  of 
plateaus,  twins  in  age  but  very  distinct  in  development,  the 
Paunsagunt  and  Markagunt.  They  are  separated  by  the  Sevier 
river,  which  flows  northward. 

On  the  terraced  plateaus  three  tribes  of  Indians  are  found: 
The  Shiwits  ("the  people  of  the  springs"),  the  Uinkarets  ("peo 
ple  of  the  pine  mountains"),  and  the  Unkakaniguts  ("people  of 
the  red  lands,  who  dwell  along  the  Vermilion  cliffs").  They  are 
all  Utes,  and  belong  to  a  confederacy  with  other  tribes  living 
farther  to  the  north,  in  Utah.  These  people  live  in  shelters  made 
of  boughs  piled  up  in  circles  and  covered  with  juniper  bark, 
supported  by  poles.  These  little  houses  are  only  large  enough 
for  half  a  dozen  persons  huddling  together  in  sleep.  Their 
aboriginal  clothing  was  very  scant,  the  most  important  being 
wild  cat  skin  and  wolf  skin  robes  for  the  men,  and  rabbit  skin 
for  the  women,  though  for  occasions  of  festival  they  had  clothing 
of  tanned  deer  and  antelope  skins,  often  decorated  with  fantastic 
ornaments  of  snake  skins,  feathers,  and  the  tails  of  squirrels  and 
chipmunks.  A  great  variety  of  seeds  and  roots  furnish  their  food, 
and  on  higher  plateaus  there  is  much  game,  especially  deer  and 


46  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

antelope.  But  the  whole  country  abounds  with  rabbits,  which 
are  often  killed  with  arrows  and  caught  in  snares. 

Every  year  they  have  great  hunts,  when  scores  of  rabbits  are 
killed  in  a  single  day.  It  is  managed  in  this  way :  They  make 
nets  of  the  fiber  of  the  wild  flax  and  of  some  other  plant,  the 
meshes  of  which  are  about  an  inch  across.  These  nets  are 
about  three  and  one-half  feet  in  width  and  hundreds  of  yards  in 
length. 

The  Kanab  River,  heading  in  the  pine  cliffs,  runs  directly 
southward  and  joins  the  Colorado  in  the  heart  of  the  Grande 
Canon.  Its  way  is  through  a  series  of  canons.  From  one  of 
these  it  emerges  at  the  foot  of  the  Vermilion  cliffs,  and  here 
stood  one  extensive  ruin  not  many  years  ago.  Some  portions 
of  the  pueblo  were  three  stories  high.  The  structure  was  one  of 
the  best  found  in  this  land  of  ruins.  The  Mormon  people  settling 
here  have  used  the  stories  of  the  old  pueblo  in  building  their 
homes,  and  now  no  vestiges  of  the  ancient  structure  remain. 
A  few  miles  below  the  town  other  ruins  were  found.  They  were 
scattered  to  Pipe's  Springs,  a  point  twenty  miles  to  the  westward. 
Ruins  were  also  discovered  up  the  stream  as  far  as  the  Pink 
cliffs,  and  eastward  along  the  Vermilion  cliffs  nearly  to  the 
Colorado  River,  and  out  on  the  margin  of  the  Kanab  plateau. 
These  were  all  ruins  of  outstanding  habitations  belonging  to  the 
Kanab  pueblo.  From  the  study  of  the  existing  pueblos  found 
elsewhere,  and  from  extensive  study  of  the  ruins,  it  seems  that 
everywhere  tribal  pueblos  were  built  of  considerable  dimensions, 
usually  to  give  shelter  to  several  hundred  people. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS. 

In  writing  the  history  of  the  explorations  which  led  to  the 
discovery  of  the  pueblos  and  cliff-dwellings,  we  shall  have  to 
go  back  to  the  time  when  Narvaez  was  wrecked  upon  the  Florida 
coast.  This  occurred  in  the  year  1528,  near  Tampa  Bay.  Those 
of  the  party  who  were  not  drowned  remained  on  an  island  or 
on  the  mainland  for  six  years,  and  endured  from  the  Indians  the 
greatest  indignities.  At  length,  four  of  them— three  Spaniards 
and  a  negro — under  the  lead  of  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  escaped,  and 
took  their  flight  towards  the  mountains  of  Northern  Alabama.* 
Thence  their  course  was  westerly  across  the  Mississippi,  "the 
great  river  coming  from  the  north,"  across  the  Arkansas  River 
to  the  headwaters  of  the  Canadian,  and  thence  southwesterly 
through  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  to  Culiacan,  or  Sonora,  which 
they  reached  in  the  spring  of  1536.  Culiacan  was  a  province 
which  had  been  visited  by  the  Spaniards  under  Nuno  de  Guz- 
inan,  and  a  colony  settled  there.f  When  these  fugitives  arrived 
at  Culiacan  they  told  marvelous  stories  concerning  the  things 
which  they  had  seen  and  heard;  and,  among  other  things,  they 
mentioned  the  great  and  powerful  cities,  which  contained  houses 
of  four  and  five  stories,  thus  confirming  the  report  of  the  Indian 
slave.  When  these  tales  were  communicated  to  the  new  gov 
ernor,  Francisco  Vasquez  de  Coronado,  in  his  home  in  Mexico, 
he  set  out  with  haste  to  the  province  of  Culiacan,  taking  with 
him  three  Franciscan  friars.J  whom  he  dispatched  with  the  negro 
Estevanico  on  a  journey  of  discovery,  with  orders  to  return  and 
report  to  him  all  they  could  ascertain  about  the  "seven  celebrated 
cities."  The  monks,  when  they  came  near  the  province,  sent 
the  negro  in  advance  The  negro,  however,  as  soon  as  he 
reached  the  country  of  the  "  seven  cities  of  Cibola,"  demanded 
not  only  their  wealth,  but  their  women.  The  inhabitants,  not 
relishing  this,  killed  him  and  sent  back  all  those  who  had  accom 
panied  him.§  This  disheartened  the  monks,  and  they  returned 

*The  names  of  the  Spariards  were  Alv?r  Nunez,  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  Andres  Dorantcs 
and  Alonzo  del  Castillo  iVialdonadq.  and  that  of  the  negro  was  Estevanico  'Stephen). 

f"The  occasion  of  visiting  this  province  was  the  rep  rt  which  was  brought  by  an 
Indian,  a  slave,  that  there  were  somewhere  north  of  Mexico,  cities,  seven  in  number,  as 
large  as  the  City  of  Mtxico  itself,  whose  streets  were  exclusively  occupied  by  workers  in 
gold  and  silver;  and  to  reach  them  a  journev  of  forty  days  through  a  desert  was  required." 

The  towns  of  Composte'la,  Culiacan,  Cinaloa,  and  Sonora  are  laid  down  on  the  mili 
tary  map  of  the  United  States  and  as  given  in  the  map  by  General  Simpson,  are  placed 
along  the  east  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  California. 

$The  name  of  one  of  the  priests  was  Marcos  de  Nica,  commonly  called  Friar  Marcos. 
Castaneda's  Relations  are  the  sources  of  information  about  the  journey. 

§  The  place  which  the  monks  visited  and  where  the  negro  was  killed  has  been  identified 
by  F.  W.  Hodge,  iree  American  Anthropologist. 


8  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

to  Culiacan;  but  in  their  report  to  Coronado  they  gave  a  glowing 
description  of  all  that  had  been  discovered  of  the  seven  cities, 
as  well  as  of  the  "islands  filled  with  treasure,  which  they  were 
assured  existed  in  the  Southern  Sea." 

Arriving  at  Mexico,  the  friars  proclaimed,  through  their  pul 
pits,  the  marvelous  discoveries,  and  Coronado  busied  himself 
with  preparing  an  expedition  to  the  region.  Many  gentlemen 
of  good  family  were  enlisted,  and  probably  there  had  not  been  an 
expedition  in  which  there  was  such  a  large  proportion  of  persons 
of  noble  birth.  It  was  also  arranged  that  two  vessels  should 
take  supplies  and  follow  the  army  along  the  coast  of  the  "South 
ern  Sea."  The  army  reached  Culiacan,  which  was  the  last  town 
inhabited  by  the  Spaniards,  and  was  two  hundred  and  ten 
leagues  from  the  City  of  Mexico.  After  resting  a  couple  of 
weeks,  Coronado  led  the  advance  of  his  army,  consisting  of 
fifty  cavaliers,  a  few  infantry,  his  particular  friends  and  the 
monks,  leaving  the  rest  of  the  army  to  follow  two  weeks  after. 
Passing  out  of  the  inhabited  region,  he  came  at  the  edge  of  a 
great  desert,  to  a  place  called  Chichilticale,  and  could  not  suppress 
his  sadness  at  what  he  saw.  The  place  of  which  so  much  had 
been  boasted  was  only  a  ruined,  and  roofless  house,  which  at  one 
time  seemed  to  have  been  fortified  and  was  built  of  red  earth.* 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  interesting  to  give  an  account  of 
the  discovery  of  the  Rio  Colorado.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  vessels  were  ordered  to  follow  the  march  of  the  army  along 
the  coast  of  the  Southern  Sea.  The  vessels  put  to  sea  from  La 
Nativitad  on  May  9,  1540.  They  put  into  the  ports  of  Xalisco 
and  Culiacan,  but  finding  Coronado  and  his  army  gone,  they 
sailed  northwardly  until  they  entered  the  Gulf  of  California, 
which  they  experienced  great  difficulty  in  navigating.  After  in 
credible  hardships  they  managed  to  get  the  vessels  to  the  end  of 
the  gulf,  where  they  found  "a  very  great  river,  and  the  current  of 
which  was  so  rapid  that  they  could  scarcely  stem  it."  Taking 
two  shallops  with  some  guns  they  commenced  the  ascent  of  the 
river  by  hauling  the  boats  with  ropes. f 

*This  was  the  work  of  civilized  people  who  had  "come  from  afar."  It  has  been  thought 
by  some  to  be  Casa  Grande  on  the  Gila— a  building  which  is  far  famed  because  it  represents 
one  class  of  structures  which  was  common  in  this  region  and  was  supposed  to  have  belonged 
to  the  ancient  Pima  Indians,  who  formerly  built  pueblos,  but  of  a  different  type  from  those 
which  were  inhabited  by  the  Moquis  and  Zunis.  Mr.  A.  F.  Bandelier  thinks  that  the  red 
house  may  possibly  have  been  Casa  Grande,  though  the  ruin  is  perfectly  white  at  present.  He 
says  that  this  kind  of  village  includes  a  much  larger  and  more  substantial  structure.  It 
grows  more  conspicuous  as  we  ascend  the  course  of  the  Otonto  Creek.  It  consists  of  a 
central  building,  into  which,  in  some  cases,  all  the  buildings  are  merged ;  sometimes  en 
closed  by  broad  quadrangular  walls,  while  transverse  walls  connect  the  enclosure  with  a 
central  hill.  In  some  cases  there  are  indications  that  the  house  was  erected  on  an  artificial 
platform.  He  says  that  the  Pimas  claim  all  the  ruins  north  of  the  Gila  to  the  "Superstition 
Range"  as  those  of  their  own  people. 

fThe  region  at  the  mouth  of  the  Colorado  is  a  flat  expanse  of  mud,  and  the  channels  at 
the  entrance  from  the  gulf  are  shifting  and  changeable.  The  navigation  is  rendered 
periodically  dangerous  by  the  strength  of  the  spring  tides.  Fort  Yuma  is  150  miles  from 
the  mouth,  and  to  this  point  the  principle  obstructions  are  sand  bars.  Above  Fort  Yuma 
for  180  miles  the  river  passes  through  a  chain  of  hills  and  mountains,  forming  gorges  and 
canons.  There  are  many  swift  rapids  and  dangerous  sunken  rocks.  The  Black  Canon  is 
twenty-five  miles  long. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS.  49 

The  general,  Fernando  Alarcon,  reached  a  point  on  the  river 
as  far  north  as  about  the  34°,  where  he  planted  a  cross  and  de 
posited  letters  at  the  foot  of  a  tree,  which  were  afterwards  found 
by  Melchior  Diaz.*  This  discovery  of  the  Gulf  of  California 
and  the  Colorado  River  is  important,  for  it  is  connected  closely 
with  the  discovery  of  "the  seven  cities."  The  same  river  was 
reached  by  a  party  consisting  of  twelve  men,  under  Don  Garci 
Lopez,  who  were  sent  out  by  Coronado  after  his  return  to  Cibola. 
After  a  journey  of  twenty  days  through  the  desert  they  reached 
the  river,  whose  banks  were  so  high  "'they  thought  themselves 
elevated  three  or  four  leagues  in  the  air."  "Their  efforts  to 
descend  were  all  made  in  vain." 

On  quitting  the  Gila  they  entered  the  desert  and  at  the  end 
of  fifteen  days  came  within  eight  leagues  of  Cibola.  There  the 
first  Indians  of  the  country  were  discovered.  On  the  following 
day  they  entered  the  inhabited  country,  but  as  the  army  came 
in  sight  of  the  village  they  broke  forth  into  maledictions.  The 
following  is  Castaneda's  description  of  the  place: 

Cibola  is  built  on  a  rock  and  this  village  is  so  small  that  in  truth  there 
are  many  farms  in  New  Spain  that  make  a  better  appearance.  It  may  con 
tain  two  hundred  warriors.  The  houses  are  built  in  three  or  four  stories; 
they  are  small,  not  spacious  and  have  no  courts,  as  a  single  court  serves 
for  a  whole  quarter.  The  inhabitants  ot  the  province  were  united  there.  It 
is  composed  of  seven  towns,  some  of  which  are  larger  and  better  fortified 
than  Cibola.  These  Indians,  ranged  in  good  order,  awaited  us  at  some  dis 
tance  from  the  village.  They  were  very  loth  to  accept  peace;  when  they 
were  required  to  do  so  by  our  interpreters,  they  menaced  us  by  their  gestures. 
Shouting  our  war  cry  of  Sant  lago,  we  charged  upon  and  quickly  caused 
them  to  fly.  Nevertheless,  it  was  necessary  to  get  possession  of  Cibola, 
which  was  no  easy  achievement,  for  the  road  leading  to  it  was  both  narrow 
and  winding.  The  general  was  knocked  down  by  the  blow  of  a  stone  as  he 
mounted  in  the  assault,  and  he  would  have  been  slain  had  it  not  been  for 
Garci  Lopez  de  Cardenas  and  Hernando  d'Alvarado,  who  threw  themselves 
before  him  and  received  the  blows  of  the  stones  which  were  designed  for 
him  and  fell  in  large  numbers;  nevertheless,  as  it  was  impossible  to  resist  the 
first  impetuous  charge  of  Spaniards,  the  village  was  gained  in  less  than  an 
hour.  It  was  found  filled  with  provisions,  which  were  much  needed,  and, 
in  a  short  time,  the  whole  province  was  forced  to  accept  peace." 

From  Cibola  the  general  sent  out  Alvarado  with  twenty  men, 
who,  "five  days  after,  arrived  at  a  village  named  Acuco." 

"This  village  was  strongly  posted,  inasmuch  as  it  was  reached  by  only 
one  path,  and  was  built  upon  a  rock  precipitous  on  all  its  other  sides,  and 
at  such  a  height  that  the  ball  from  an  arquebuse  could  scarcely  reach  its 
summit.  It  was  entered  by  a  stairway  cut  bv  the  hand  of  man,  which  began 
at  the  bottom  of  the  declivitous  rock  and  led  up  to  the  village.  This  stair 
way  was  of  suitable  width  for  the  first  two  hundred  steps,  but  after  these 
there  were  a  hundred  more  much  narrower,  and  when  the  top  was  finally  to 


*,Melchior  Diaz,  who  had  been  left  at  Sonora.  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  twenty-five 
men,  under  the  lead  of  guides,  and  followed  up  the  coast  one  hundred  and  fifty  leagues, 
until  he  arrived  at  the  river  called  Rio  del  Tizon.  whose  mouth  was  two  leagues  wide.  He 
reached  the  spot  fifteen  leagues  from  its  mouth  and  found  the  tree  marked  by  Alarcon,  dug 
and  found  the  letters.  The  party  crossed  the  Rio  del  Tizon  on  rafts  and  turned  toward  the 
southeast,  thus  going  around  the  Gulf  of  California.  No  rliins  were  discovered  by  this 

Birty.    The  spot  which  this  party  reached  was  much  nearer  its  source  than  where  Melchior 
iaz  had  crossed,  though  the  Indians  were  the  same  which  Diaz  had  seen. 


50  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

be  reached  it  was  necessary  to  scramble  up  the  three  last  steps  by  placing 
the  feet  in  holes  scraped  in  the  rock,  and  as  the  ascender  could  scarcely 
make  the  point  of  his  toe  enter  them  he  was  forced  to  cling  to  the  precipice 
with  his  hands.  On  the  summit  there  was  a  great  arsenal  of  huge  stones, 
which  the  defenders,  without  exposing  themselves,  could  roll  down  on  the 
assailants,  so  that  no  army,  no  matter  what  its  strength  might  be,  could 
force  this  passage.  There  was  on  the  top  a  sufficient  space  of  ground  to 
cultivate  and  store  a  large  supply  of  corn,  as  well  as  cisterns  to  contain 
water  and  snow." 

Three  days'  journey  thence  Alvarado  reached  a  province 
called  Tiguex,  where  he  was  received  very  kindly,  and  was  so 
well  pleased  that  he  sent  a  messenger  to  Coronado  inviting  him 
to  winter  there.  Five  days'  journey  thence  Alvarado  reached 
Cicuye  (Pecos),  a  village  very  strongly  fortified,  whose  houses 
had  four  stories.  "Here  he  fell  in  with  an  Indian  slave,  who  was 
a  native  of  the  country  adjacent  to  Florida,  the  interior  of  which 
Ferdinan  de  Soto  had  lately  explored."  The  Indian,  whom 
they  called  the  Turk,  spoke  of  certain  large  towns  and  of  large 
stores  of  gold  and  silver  in  his  country  and  also  the  country  of 
the  bisons.  Alvarado  took  him  as  a  guide  to  the  bison  country, 
and  after  he  had  seen  a  few  of  them  he  returned  to  Tiguex,  the 
Rio  Grande,  to  give  an  account  of  the  news  to  Coronado. 

While  the  discoveries  above  mentioned  were  being  made,  some 
Indians,  living  seventy  leagues  toward  the  east  arrived  at  Cibola. 
They  offered  gifts  of  tanned  skins,  shields  and  helmets,  and 
spoke  of  the  cows  whose  skins  were  covered  with  a  frizzled  hair 
resembling  wool,  showing  they  were  buffaloes. 

Coronado,  who  had  remained  at  Cibola,  hearing  of  a  province 
composed  of  eight  towns,  took  with  him  thirty  of  the  most 
hardy  of  his  men  and  set  out  to  visit  it  on  his  way  to  Tiguex  or 
Rio  Grande.  In  eight  or  eleven  days  he  reached  the  province 
called  Tutahaco,  which  appears  to  have  been  situated  below  the 
city  of  Tiguex.  The  eight  villages  comprising  this  province 
were  not  like  those  of  Cibola,  built  of  stone,  bat  of  earth.  He 
learned  of  other  villages  still  further  down  the  river.  In  the 
meantime  the  army  moved  from  Cibola  toward  Tiguex.  The 
first  day  they  reached  the  handsomest  and  largest  village  in  the 
province,  where  they  lodged.  ''There  they  found  houses  of 
seven  stories,  which  were  seen  nowhere  else.  These  belonged 
to  private  individuals  and  served  as  fortresses.  They  rise  so  far 
above  the  others  that  they  have  the  appearance  of  towers.  There 
are  embrasures  and  loop-holes  from  which  lances  may  be  thrown 
and  the  place  defended.  As  all  these  villages  have  no  streets, 
all  the  roofs  are  flat  and  common  for  all  the  inhabitants;  it  is 
therefore  necessary  first  of  all  to  take  possession  of  those  houses 
which  serve  as  defenses." 

The  army  passed  near  the  Great  Rock  of  Acuco  (Acoma), 
already  described,  where  they  were  well  received  by  the  inhabit 
ants  of  the  city  perched  on  its  summit.  Finally  it  reached 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS.  51 

Tiguex,  where  it  was  well  recieved  and  lodged.  It  was  found, 
however,  that  the  whole  province  was  in  open  revolt,  and  the 
army  was  obliged  to  lay  siege  to  the  city  and  capture  it  anew. 
After  the  siege  the  general  dispatched  the  captain  to  Cia,  which 
was  a  large  and  populous  village  four  leagues  west  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  Six  other  Spaniards  went  to  Quirix,  a  province  com 
posed  of  seven  villages  All  these  villages  were  at  length 
tranquilized  by  the  assiduous  efforts  of  the  Spaniards.  The 
army  spent  the  winter  here,  but  early  in  the  next  season,  May, 
1541,  they  took  up  the  march  to  Quivira  in  search  of  the  gold 
and  silver  which  the  Turk  said  could  be  found  there.  The 
route  was  via  Cicuye  (Pecos),  twenty-five  leagues  distant.  After 
leaving  Cicuye  (Pecos)  and  crossing  some  mountains  they  reached 
a  large  and  deep  river  which  passed  near  to  Cicuye,  and  was 
therefore  called  the  Rio  de  Cicuye  (Pecos).  Here  they  were  de 
layed  four  days  to  build  a  bridge.  Ten  days  after,  on  their  march, 
they  discovered  some  tents  of  tanned  buffalo  skins  inhabited  by 
Indians  who  were  called  Querechaos. 

Continuing  their  march  in  a  northeasterly  direction  they  came 
to  a  village  which  Cabeca  de  Vaca  had  passed  on  his  way  from 
Florida  to  Mexico.  The  army  met  with  and  killed  an  incredible 
number  of  buffaloes  ;  but  reached  a  point  850  miles  from  Tiguex. 
Here,  the  provisions  giving  out,  Coronado  with  thirty  horsemen 
and  six  foot  soldiers  continued  his  march  in  search  of  Quivira, 
while  the  rest  of  the  army  returned.  The  guides  conducted  the 
general  to  Quivira  in  forty-eight  days.  Here  they  found  neither 
gold  nor  silver,  though  the  Cacique  wore  on  his  breast  a  copper 
plate,  of  which  he  made  a  great  parade.  The  army,  on  its  re 
turn  from  the  prairies,  came  to  four  large  villages  and  reached  a 
place  where  the  river  plunged  beneath  the  ground.  In  the 
beginning  of  1542  Coronado  returned  by  the  way  of  Cibola  and 
Chichilticale  to  Culiacan,  and  finally  reached  the  City  of  Mexico. 

Thus  ended  the  great  expedition  which  for  extent  and  distance 
traveled,  duration,  in  time  (more  than  two  years)  and  for  the 
multitude  of  its  discoveries,  and  the  many  branch  explorations, 
excelled  any  land  expedition  that  has  been  undertaken  in 
modern  times. 

It  was  the  first  expedition  which  was  ever  led  into  the  south 
west  interior,  but  did  more  to  bring  to  light  the  wonderful  vil 
lages  or  pueblos  located  there  than  any  other  that  has  ever  taken 
place.  To  us  the  narrative  of  the  expedition  is  of  very  great 
value,  for  it  reveals  the  exact  condition  of  the  country  as  it  was 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
this  expedition  took  place  less  than  fifty  years  after  the  discovery 
and  only  fifteen  years  after  the  expedition  by  Ferdinan  de  Soto, 
and  eighty  years  before  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  It 
resulted  in  disappointment  to  the  leaders,  for  they  had  expected 
to  find  cities  filled  with  gold,  similar  to  those  which  had  been 


52  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

discovered  by  Cortez  in  Mexico  and  by  Pizarro  in  Peru;  but, 
instead,  they  found  solitary  buildings  in  ruins,  and  such  villages 
as  were  inhabited  were  situated  on  barren  rocks,  and  were  per 
fectly  destitute  of  gold  or  silver  or  the  precious  metals.  The 
region  which  they  went  so  far  to  reach  was  inhabited  by  wild 
tribes,  who  dwelt  in  huts  or  wigwams,  and  chased  the  buffalo 
for  subsistence. 

There  were  two  motives  which  ruled  the  Spaniards  wherever 
they  went — the  thirst  for  gold  and  the  conversion  of  the  natives. 
The  thirst  for  gold  was  not  satisfied,  but  the  opportunity  for 
christianizing  the  Indians  was  great.  So  the  country  continued  to 
be  occupied  by  the  Spanish  missionaries.  From  this  time  on, 
the  history  is  one  of  missions  rather  than  of  discovery  or  con 
quest,  though  there  were  various  military  expeditions  and  many 
fierce  battles.  The  revolts  of  the  natives  against  the  dominion 
of  the  priests  required  the  presence  of  armed  hosts,  and  only 
ended  with  the  subjugation  of  the  people  by  military  force. 
New  Mexico  was  brought  altogether  under  Spanish  rule  by  Juan 
de  Onate  in  1595.  In  1680  the  natives  threw  off  the  yoke, 
but  were  again  subdued  fifteen  years  later.  The  archives  of  the 
missions  were  destroyed  in  the  revolt,  and  the  history  previous 
to  that  date  is  only  known  in  outline.  The  diaries  kept  after 
this  date  show  that  the  authors  visited  many  of  the  ruins  which 
have  attracted  the  attention  of  later  explorers,  and  also  that  they 
found  many  of  the  towns  inhabited  which  now  exist  only  as  ruins. 

We  shall  not  dwell  further  upon  the  history  of  the  region, 
nor  shall  we  at  the  present  time  speak  of  the  discoveries  which 
have  taken  place  since  the  region  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  United  States  government;  but  shall  proceed  at  once  to  the 
question  whether  these  various  localities  visited  by  the  Spaniards 
under  Coronado  can  be  identified.  This  is  an  important  ques 
tion,  for  it  brings  out  the  changes  which  have  occurred  in  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  at  the  same  time  throws  light  upon 
the  relative  age  of  the  different  ruins. 

I.  We  shall  first  speak  of  the  distribution  of  the  pueblos. 
On  this  point  we  shall  quote  the  words  of  Dr.  Washington 
Matthews,  who  long  resided  at  Fort  Wingate,  and  is  familiar 
with  the  whole  region.  He  says:  "Along  the  great  Cordillera 
of  the  American  Continent,  on  both  sides  of  the  equator,  from 
Wyoming  to  Chili  extends  a  land  abounding  in  ancient  ruins. 
A  large  part  of  this  land  lies  in  the  boundary  of  the  United 
States.  It  contains  the  Territory  of  Arizona,  most  of  Utah,  more 
than  half  of  New  Mexico,  extensive  parts  of  the  states  of  Colo 
rado  and  Nevada,  with  small  portions  of  Texas  and  California. 
The  great  rivers  which  drain  it  into  the  ocean  are  the  Colorado  on 
the  west,  and  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  east;  the  former  flowing 
toward  the  Pacific,  the  latter  toward  the  Atlantic.  It  is  an  arid 
region,  but  not  an  absolute  desert,  for  there  is  no  part  of  it  on 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS.  53 

which  rain  does  not  fall  some  time  during  every  year,  but  it  is 
on  the  high  mountains  only  that  it  descends  abundantly,  while 
on  the  lower  levels  the  moisture  is  scanty,  and  irrigation  is  nec 
essary  to  successful  agriculture.  The  ruins  have  been  known  to 
the  world  for  three  centuries  and  a  half;  they  have  been  in  the 
possession  of  the  United  States  for  over  forty  years.  Yet  it  is 
only  within  the  past  few  years  that  any  attempt  at  systematic 
exploration  or  excavation  has  been  made  among  them.* 

A.  F.  Bandelier  says :  "The  northern  limits  of  the  House-build 
ers  remains  yet  to  be  definitely  established.  Taos  seems  to  be 
the  northernmost  Pueblo.  The  eastern  limits  seem  to  be  the 
meridian  of  the  Pecos  River;  the  western,  the  great  Colorado, 
and  the  dismal  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  California ;  the  southern 
limits,  the  ruins  found  in  southern  Colorado  and  in  southern 
Utah.  Within  the  area  thus  defined  the  villages  were  scattered 
very  irregularly,  and  in  fact  their  inhabitants  occupied  and  used 
but  a  small  quantity  of  the  ground.  Extensive  desert  tracks 
often  separated  the  groups  and  these  spaces  were  open  to  the 
roving  Indians,  who  prowled  in  and  about  the  settlements  much 
to  the  detriment  of  the  inhabitants.  Thus,  Acoma,  is  separated 
from  the  Zuni  group  by  at  last  seventy  miles  of  waste,  and  the 
Navajos  raided  oven  this  space  at  will,  endangering  communica 
tions  from  the  Tehuas,  while  both  tribes  were  some  distance 
away  from  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  side  valley.  From  Acoma 
to  the  Rio  Grande  another  forty  miles  of  desert  intervened.  Be 
tween  the  latter  and  Tiguex  the  uninhabited  region  is  from 
thirty  to  forty  miles,  and  here  the  Apaches  could  lurk  and  assault 
at  any  time.  A  desert  stretch  of  twenty  miles  separated  the 
pueblo  of  Picuries  from  the  Tahuas ;  and  a  stretch  of  thirty 
miles  separated  them  from  Taos.  Twenty-seven  miles  to  the 
southwest  of  Santa  Fe  is  Cochiti,  and  three  miles  east  of  the 
stream  is  the  old  pueblo  of  Santa  Domingo;  on  the  same  side 
but  directly  on  the  river  bank  stood  Katishtya,  the  antecessor 
of  the  present  Felipe.  Farther  west  on  the  Jemez  River  the 
Queres  inhabited  several  sites.  Here  was  a  cluster  of  the  Cia 
towns,  and  northwest  of  Cia  began  the  range  of  the  Jemez  who 
inhabited  a  number  of  pueblos  along  the  Jemez  River,  f  The 
Pueblos,  far  from  being  masters  of  New  Mexico  previous  to  the 
coming  of  the  Spaniards,  were  hemmed  in  and  hampered  on 
all  S'des  by  tribes  which  were  swift  in  their  movements,  and 
had  a  great  advantage  over  the  Pueblos  in  number. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  area  indicated  is  uniformly 
covered,  for  there  are  many  districts  utterly  devoid  of  ruins. 

*See  Seventh  Memoir  National  Academy  of  Science.  Vol.  VI,  Human  Bones  of  the  Hem- 
emvay  Collection,  by  Dr.  Washington  Matthews,  U.  S.  A.  Introduction  p.  142. 

fThe  total  number  of  pueblos,  as  stated  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  does 
not  at  all  agree  with  that  number  as  it  st'ands  at  the  present  time.  It  is  much  larger  and 
varies  from  forty-six  (Escalante,  from  reports  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion,)  to  over  one  hun 
dred.  (Onate,  in  the  Acts  ef  Submission  of  1598.) 


54  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Very  few  are  found  in  the  high  forests,  for  it  is  useless  to  look 
for  ruins  at  an  altitude  exceeding  8,000  feet — climate,  lack  of 
space  for  cultivation,  together  with  the  steepness  of  slopes  for 
bid.  The  lower  limits  of  the  ruins  seem  mostly  dependent  on 
natural  features.  On  the  side  of  Arizona,  but  not  on  the  sea- 
coast  the  ruins  ascend  within  1,000  feet  of  the  sea  level.  There 
are  said  to  be  traces  of  the  succession  of  ruins  along  the  Canadian 
River  far  across  the  great  plains."* 

"There  is  nothing  in  the  natural  resources  of  New  Mexico  that 
could  maintain  a  large  number  of  people  whose  industrial  means 
of  support  were  those  which  belonged  to  the  "stone  age."  The 
water  supply  of  the  territory  is  remarkably  scant,  and,  while  the 
Indian  knew  and  used  springs  which  the  present  settler  is 
sometimes  unacquainted  with,  the  value  of  such  springs  was  not 
very  great.  They  might  suffice  for  the  wants  of  one  or  a  few 
families,  some  times  for  a  small  village.  To  such  watering 
places  the  Indian  was  limited,  outside  of  the  river  bottoms  of 
larger  streams.  But  the  larger  streams  are  few  and  far  between, 
and  only  portions  of  their  course  are  suitable  for  cultivation. 
Only  the  Rio  Grande,  the  San  Juan,  the  Chama.  parts  of  the 
Pecos,  Jemez,  Puerco  and  Upper  Gila  irrigate  large  valleys."f 

Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan  says  that  "New  Mexico  is  a  poor  coun 
try  for  civilized  man,  but  quite  well  adapted  to  the  sedentary 
Indians,  who  cultivated  about  one  acre  out  of  every  hundred 
thousand.  This  region  and  the  San  Juan  immediately  north  of 
it  possessed  a  number  of  narrow,  fertile  valleys,  containing 
together  possibly  50,000  inhabitants,  and  it  is  occupied  now  by 
their  descendants  (excepting  the  San  Juan)  in  manner  and  form 
as  it  was  then.  The  region  is  favorable  to  the  communistic  mode 
of  life,  cultivation  of  the  soil  by  irrigation  being  a  necessity." 

The  disappointment  of  the  Spaniards,  who  came  from  the 
mountain  city  and  were  familiar  with  the  luxuriant  growth  of 
the  southern  coasts,  and  found  this  region  so  destitute  of  forests 
and  so  silent  and  lonely,  must  have  been  great,  for  it  was  a  new 
experience  to  them.  So  it  is  with  every  one  who  traverses  the 
region.  The  scenery  is  entirely  different  from  that  which  pre 
vails  elsewhere,  and  the  life  is  as  different  as  the  scenery. 

As  to  the  age  of  the  pueblos  very  little  can  be  said.  One  sup 
position  is  that  the  people  formerly  dwelt  in  one-story  houses, 
which  were  clustered  together  in  a  circle  with  a  court  in  the  cen 
ter,  something  like  those  in  Arizona  Territory,  which  Bandelier 
says  has  the  "checker-board"  appearance;  but  the  attack  of  the 
wild  tribes,  which  were  the  Navajos  and  Apaches,  compelled 

*The  plains  of  San  Augustine  in  Southwestern  New  Mexico,  the  plateau  of  the  Natanes 
in  Eastern  Arizona,  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande  from  the  San  Louis  Valley  to  the  end  of 
the  gorge  appear  not  to  have  been  settled  in  anciefft  times. 

yA  line  from  Taos  in  the  extreme  north  as  far  south  as  where  San  Marcial  now  stands, 
makes  a  length  of  nearly  230  miles;  from  east  to  west  they  spread  fern  longitude  105°  %', 
I  laos  and  Pecos)  to  nearly  n^°  3o\  (the  Moqui  villages.)  Lieut.  Simpson  makes  the  dis 
tance  east  and  west  360  miles.  (See  Final  Report,  Part  I.,  p.  119.) 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS. 

them  to  build  their  houses  in  terraces,  making  them  resemble 
modern  flats,  except  that  the  lower  stories  were  closed.  The 
upper  stories  were  reached  by  ladders,  each  story  having  a  ter 
race  or  platform  in  front  of  it.  The  relative  age  of  the  Pueblos 
and  Cliff-dwellers  is  a  mere  matter  of  conjecture.  Some  think 
the  Cliff-dwellers  the  older;  others  regard  them  as  later,  though 
no  cliff-dwelling  has  yet  been  found  occupied.  It  is  a  common 
impression  that  the  pueblos  are  all  very  ancient;  but  recent  in 
vestigations  have  proved  the  contrary.  The  majority  of  the 
pueblos  which  were  visited  were  occupied,  and  were  probably 
built  by  the  people  who  dwelt  in  them,  but  their  history  could  not 
be  carried  back  to  a  certainty  more  than  five  or  six  hundred 
years.*  The  buildings  which  are  now  standing,  and  are  at 
present  occupied,  are  not  the  ones  visited  by  the  Spaniards. 
The  villages  have  been  moved  and  new  structures  have  been 
erected  several  times  over  during  the  three  hundred  and  fifty 
years  which  have  elapsed,  though  they  are  in  the  same  vicinity 
and  their  architecture  and  mode  of  life  may  be  very  similar. 
This  makes  it  more  difficult  to  identify  the  exact  spots  which 
were  visited  of  which  we  have  the  descriptions,  though  it  gives 
us  a  better  idea  of  the  people  and  the  persistency  of  their  cus 
toms,  if  we  take  the  later  accounts  and  compare  them  with  the 
earlier. 

II.  Taking  the  localities  through  which  the  Spaniards  passed, 
let  us  now  see  how  many  of  the  ruins  can  be  identified.  We 
shall  begin  with  the  place  called  Chichilticalli.  The  question  is 
whether  Casa  Grande  was  actually  the  building  which  was 
reached.  On  this  point  we  shall  quote  first  from  Father  Font, 
who  saw  it  in  1775,  and  says  it  was  known  by  the  name  of 
Montezuma,  and  was  one  league  from  the  Rio  Gila.  "The  Casa 
Grande,  or  palace  of  Montezuma,  must  have  been  built  five  hun 
dred  years  previously  (in  the  thirteenth  century),  if  we  are  to 
believe  the  accounts  given  by  the  Indians;  for  it  appears  to  have 
been  constructed  by  the  Mexicans  at  the  epoch  of  their  emigra 
tion  when  the  devil,  conducting  them  through  different  countries, 
led  them  to  the  promised  land  of  Mexico."  This  was  the  Span 
ish  conception  of  the  ruins. 

Various  American  travelers  have  visited  this  region — Emory 
and  Johnson  in  1846,  Bartlett  in  1852,  Ross  Brown  in  1863, 
Leroux  in  1854,  Bandelier  in  1880-1885,  F.  H.  Cushing  and 
Washington  Matthews  in  1887.  Emery's  description  is  as  follows: 

It  was  the  remains  of  a  three  story  mud  house  sixty  feet  square,  pierced 
for  doors  and  windows.  The  whole  interior  of  the  house  had  been  burnt 
out  and  the  walls  much  defaced.  The  site  of  the  house  is  flat  on  all  sides; 
and  the  ruins  of  the  houses  which  compose  the  town  extend  more  than  a 

*  Certain  pueblos  were  mentioned  to  Frav  Marcos  of  Niza,  under  the  name  of  Toton- 
teac,  a  Zuni  term  applied  to  a  cluster  of  twelve  pueblos  lying  in  the  direction  of  Moquis, 
which  were  abandoned  before  the  sixteenth  century,  but  the  reminiscence  of  which  still  re 
mained  in  the  name.  ;  ee  Bandelier,  Vol.  Ill,  Fart  I,  p.  114. 


56  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

league  toward  the  east.  All  the  land  is  partially  covered  with  pieces  of 
pots,  jugs  and  plates  painted  in  different  colors — white,  blue  and  red — very 
different  from  the  work  of  the  Pimas.  The  house  forms  an  oblong  square 
facing  exactly  the  four  cardinal  points;  and  round  about  there  are  ruins  in 
dicating  a  fence  or  wall,  which  surrounded  it.  In  the  corners  there  appears 
to  have  been  some  edifice  like  a  castle  or  watch  tower.  The  interior  of  the 
house  consists  of  five  halls — three  middle  ones  of  one  size,  twenty-six  feet 
by  ten  feet;  the  extreme  ones  longer,  thirty-eight  feet  by  twelve  feet;  all 
eleven  feet  high.  The  inner  doors  are  of  equal  size,  two  feet  by  five  feet; 
the  outer  doors  are  double  width.  The  inner  walls  are  four  feet  thick;  the 
outer  walls  six  feet  thick.  All  of  the  building"  is  of  earth,  and  according  to 
appearances  is  built  in  boxes  or  moulds  of  different  sizes.  A  trench  leads 
from  the  river  at  a  great  distance,  by  which  the  town  is  supplied  with  water. 
It  is  now  nearly  buried  up.  The  house  is  seventy  feet  from  north  to  south, 
and  fifty  from  east  to  west.  The  interior  walls  are  four  feet  in  thickness; 
they  are  well  constructed;  the  interior  walls  are  six  feet  thick.  The  edifice 
is  constructed  of  earth,  in  blocks  of  different  thickness  and  has  three 
stories.  We  found  no  traces  of  stairways.  We  think  they  must  have  been 
burnt  when  the  Apaches  burnt  this  edifice."* 

Bandelier  describes  Casa  Grande  and  the  cities  adjoining,  as 
well  as  the  canals.  He  says  : 

"The  careful  study  of  documents  is  indispensable  for  successful  explor 
ation  of  the  antiquities  of  the  country.  Numerous  notices  of  ruined  villages 
are  scattered  throughout  the  voluminous  archives  of  Spanish  rule  in  the 
Southwest.  I  will  refer  here  only  to  the  descriptions  of  the  Casa  Grande 
by  Father  Rino  and  Father  Sedelmair;  of  the  Casa  Grand,  by  Rivera; 
Northwestern  New  Mexico,  by  Father  Escalante.  Their  descriptions, 
dating  back,  enables  us  to  re-tore  much  in  these  edifices  to  which  their 
present  conditions  gives  no  clue." 

"Between  Casa  Grande  and  Florence  the  distance  eastward  is  nine  long 
miles,  and  the  country  shows  no  change.  Several  ancient  irrigating  ditches 
are  seen  on  the  road,  some  of  which  are  quite  deep.  Nowhere  did  I  notice 
any  trace  of  a  lining  or  casing,  as  at  Tule;  the  raised  backs  or  rims  seemed 
to  be  only  of  the  soil.  Ruins  in  scattered  clusters  are  numerous,  all  of  the 
same  character.  In  one  place  I  found  an  elliptical  tank  almost  as  large  as 
the  one  at  Casa  Grande  and  presenting  a  similar  appearance.  Wherever 
walls  protruded  the  walls  were  the  same,  only  thinner.  This  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  that  they  were  merely  partitions,  and  that  I  nowhere  could 
measure  the  outer  ones,  which  have  crumbled.  In  short,  from  Casa  Blanca 
in  the  west — and  probably  some  distance  beyond — a  1'ne  of  ruins  extends 
to  east  of  Florence,  and  probably  as  far  as  Riverside,  or  a  stretch  of  more 
than  sixty  miles.  These  ruins,  however,  do  not  reach  very  far  inland, 
although  some  are  scattered  throughout  Papagneria.  At  this  day  Casa 
Grande  shows  two  stories  with  vertical  walls  on  all  four  sides,  and  from  the 
center  rises  a  third  story  like  a  low  tower.  Whether  the  latter  originally 
extended  over  tbe  whole  building  or  not,  I  am  unable  to  determine." 

Dr.  Washington  Matthews'  account  is  more  complete  and 
full,  and  includes  many  new  localities.  It  appears  that  the  Hem- 
enway  Expedition  arrived  in  the  valley  of  the  Salt  River,  a  trib 
utary  of  the  Gila.  in  Arizona,  and  began  excavating  some  stone 
ruins  on  the  uplands,  but  were  attracted  by  some  earth  mounds 
on  the  flood.  The  result  was  the  discovery  of  an  extensive  col 
lection  of  habitations — a  city  it  might  be  called — some  six  miles 
in  length  and  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  in  width.  The  mound 

*N  tesof  a  military  reconnoissance  made  by  Lieutenant  Colonel  William  A.  Emory, 
Corps  of  typographical  Engineers,  in  1846-47,  with  the  advance  guard  of  the  Army  of  the 

\\est  p,  82. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS.  57 

proved  to  be  the  debris  of  a  great  earthen  house,  of  many  stories 
and  many  chambers,  and  analagous  in  structure  to  the  still- 
standing  Casa  Grande,  before  referred  to,  which  is  distant  from 
the  mound  to  the  southeast  less  than  thirty-five  miles  in  a  direct 
line.  In  the  course  of  excavation  at  this  place  so  many  skele 
tons  were  found  under  the  floors  of  the  houses  that  Mr.  Gushing 
devised  for  it  the  Spanish  name  of  Pueblo  de  los  Muertos,  or, 
briefly,  Los  Muertos,  the  town  of  the  dead;  and  this  name  was 
retained  for  it,  although  he  subsequently  found  other  ruined 
cities  in  the  vicinity  where  skeletons  were  as  common  as  here. 

The  party  discovered  the  remains  of  six  other  large  cities 
within  ten  miles.  Of  these  three  were  named :  First,  Los 
Acequias.  from  the  number,  size  and  appearance  of  the  old  can 
als  or  irrigated  ditches  through  which  the  inhabitants  conducted 
water  to  their  fields ;  second,  Los  Hornos,  the  ovens,  from  the 
number  of  earthen  ovens  found  there ;  third,  Los  Guanacos,  be 
cause  in  it  were  found  small  terra-cotta  images  of  animals 
thought  to  resemble  the  llama  of  South  America.  In  these 
ruined  cities  the  remains  of  buildings  like  the  Casa  Grande  were 
found.  They  were  of  four  kinds  :  i,  temples;  2,  estufas;  3,  com 
munal  houses;  4,  ultramural  houses.  Of  the  temples  there  was 
only  one  to  each  city  and  this  was  centrally  located;  though  in 
one  of  the  cities  there  were  seven  such  buildings,  the  largest  of 
which  was  in  the  center.  Each  building  was  surrounded  by  a 
high  wall  from  five  to  ten  feet  thick.  The  lower  story  of  each 
was  divided  into  six  departments,  which  were  used  as  store 
rooms  for  the  priests.  The  other  stories  were  used  as  priestly 
residences.  The  entire  building  served  as  a  fortress  in  times  ot 
danger. 

The  sun  temples,  or  estufas,  were  built  of  earth  on  a  great 
basket  frame  of  hurdles,  elliptical  in  shape,  were  roofed  with  a 
dome  made  of  spiralling,  contracting  coils  of  reeds,  which  were 
heavily  covered  on  the  outside  with  mud,  and  resembling  an 
elongated  terra  cotta  bowl  inverted,  reminding  one  ot  the  Mormon 
temple.  The  dimensions  were  about  150  ieet  in  width,  200  leet 
in  length.  The  floor  within  was  elevated  so  as  to  form  a  sort  of 
ampitheater.  It  is  thought  that  in  these  buildings  public  rites 
of  the  esoteric  societies  were  performed,  as  they  were  in  close 
proximity  to  the  priests'  dwelling. 

The  communal  houses  were  the  principal  dwelling  places. 
They  were  built  of  mud  without  the  hurdles.  These  contained 
many  ruins  on  the  ground  floor  and  are  thought  to  have  been 


*Dr.  Washington  Matthews  speaks  of  figures  inscribed  on  the  rocks  representing  ani 
mals  which  resemble  the  Llamas  of  Peru  and  hunters  throwing  lassos  at  them  These  may 
possibly  have  been  elks,  for  they  are  associated  with  other  animals  with  horns  like  the  deer, 
and  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  people  knew  anything  about  the  Llamas.  There  are  tur 
keys  inscribed  upon  the  rocks.  These  were  probably  the  domestic  fowls,  for  tame  turkeys 
were  common  among  the  pueblos. 

*This  illustrates  the  superstition  ut  the  six  houses  of  the  sky:  4  for  the  cardinal 
points;  2  for  the  zenith  and  nadir, 


58  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

the  homes  of  separate  clans.  Each  was  surrounded  by  a  high 
earthen  wall  and  generally  by  a  separate  canal  or  acequia.  Each 
had  its  single  appropriate  water  reservoir  with  a  branch  canal 
leading  into  it,  its  own  separate  Pyral  mound,  or  place  of  crema 
tion,  and  its  one  great  underground  oven  for  the  preparation  of 
food.  In  Los  Muertos  at  least  fifty  of  these  great  buildings  were 
unearthed. 

The  ultra  mural  houses  were  small  low  huts  made  of  sticks 
and  reeds,  and  were  situated  outside  the  limits  of  the  earthen 
houses  and  formed  separate  groups,  Each  contained  a  central 
fire-place.  In  one  place  they  constituted  a  town  of  considerable 
size,  which  contained  a  sun  temple,  but  no  priest  temple.  They 
may  have  belonged  to  the  Pimas  or  some  later  modern  tribes.* 

The  acequias  or  irrigating  canals  are  noteworthy.  The  explor 
ers  in  the  Salado  Valley  have  traced  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  the  larger  canals.  They  varied  in  width  from  ten  to 
thirty  feet;  and  in  depth  from  three  to  twelve  feet.  Their  banks 
were  terraced  in  such  a  form  as  to  secure  a  central  current.  This 
device  was  to  facilitate  navigation;  and  it  is  thought  that  the 
canals  were  used  not  only  for  irrigation,  but  for  the  transporta 
tion  of  the  produce  of  the  fields  and  of  the  great  timbers  from 
the  mountains  which  the  people  must  have  needed  in  the  con 
struction  of  their  tall  temples  and  other  houses. 

In  various  parts  of  our  arid  region  the  old  Indian  canals  may 
be  still  easily  traced  where  they  are  cut  through  hard  soil  or 
where  they  are  so  exposed  and  situated  with  regard  to  the  pre 
vailing  winds,  that  the  sand  is  blown  out  of  them  rather  than 
drifted  into  them.  There  are  places  in  Arizona  where  the  Amer 
ican  settlers  utilize  old  canals  for  wagon  roads.  But  in  most 
cases  the  canals  have  been  filled  with  sand  and  clay  to  the  level 
of  the  surrounding  soil,  and,  to  the  ordinary  observer,  no  vestige 
of  them  remains.  Yet,  Mr.  Gushing,  guided  by  his  knowledge 
of  a  custom  which  exists  among  the  Zuni  Indians,  was  able  to 
trace  the  course  of  these  obliterated  channels.  The  ancients  con 
structed  great  reservoirs  to  store  the  excessive  water  when  the 
river  was  high.  The  present  occupants  have  no  such  works. 
The  canals  of  the  moderns  follow  straight  lines;  those  of  the 
ancients  were  tortuous.  In  the -old  canals  the  tall  was  about  one 
foot  to  the  mile,  in  the  new  it  is  two  feet  to  the  mile.  The 
ancient  people  used  the  water  to  a  greater  advantage  than  the 
moderns  and  covered  a  wider  territory  with  their  system.  A 
Mormon  community  made  use  of  the  prehistoric  cut  and  saved 
$20,000  by  this  means.  The  ancient  people  had  also  a  system 

*Mr.  Bandolier  speaks  of  the  enclosures  found  apart  from  the  houses,  rectangular 
spaces  surrounded  by  upright  small  stones.  The  Pirn  a  Indians  assert  that  these  were 
garden-beds.  They  are  now  very  numerous  in  Arizona.  He  says  that  the  scattered  re 
mains  of  permanent  villages  with  artificial  tanks,  mounds  of  houses  constructed  of  marl- 
sometimes  more  than  one  story  high  met  here  and  there  are  evidences  of  a  period  of  rela- 
ive  quiet  that  has  long  sine-  disappeared;  though  he  thinks  the  Pimas  may  have  built 
hese  canals.  The  Yumas  and  the  Papagoes  continue  to  occupy  the  region. 


€0  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

of  rainwater  irrigation.  For  conserving  the  waters  of  the  sudden 
rains  on  the  mountains  and  hills  the  people  built  dams  in  the 
ravines  and  large  reservoirs  in  the  neighboring  foot  hills.  From 
these  reservoirs  the  waters  were  allowed  to  flow  gradually  over 
the  fields. 

III.  The  groups  which  have  always  gone  by  the  name  of  "seven 
cities  of  Cibola"  will  next  be  considered.  The  description  given 
by  Friar  Marcos  de  Nizza  is  the  first  one.  It  dates  back  to  1538. 
There  has  been  some  discussion  as  to  which  one  of  the  seven 
cities  he  saw.  He  did  not  enter  any  of  the  pueblos,  but  the 
principal  men  led  him  to  a  place  where  he  could  see  Cibola  from 
afar.  His  description  is  as  follows.  "Cibola  lies  in  a  plain  on  a 
slope  of  a  round  height.  Its  appearance  is  very  good  for  settle 
ment — the  best  that  I  have  seen  in  these  parts.  The  houses  are 
as  the  Indians  told  me — all  of  stone  with  their  stories  and  flat 
roof.  As  far  as  I  could  see  from  a  height  where  I  placed  myself 
to  observe  I  could  see  that  the  city  was  larger  than  the  City  of 
Mexico  itself.  The  Indian  guides  reiterated  the  statement  that 
the  village  now  in  view  was  the  smallest  one  of  the  seven ;  and 
that  Totonteac  (Tusayan)  was  much  more  important  than  the 
so-called  seven  cities.  Here  he  raised  a  wooden  cross,*  naming 
the  new  land  the  New  Kingdom  of  Saint  Francis,  and  turned 
back  with  much  more  fright  than  food." 

The  latest  description  is  the  one  given  by  Victor  Mindeleft,  of 
the  Ethnological  Bureau,  who  says:  "It  has  been  the  custom  to 
give  the  name  of  Old  Zuni  to  a  group  of  small  and  ruined 
pueblos  which  lie  at  the  summit  of  the  great  mesa  called  by  the 
Indians  Thunder  Mountain,  Ta-a-ya-la-na,  and  that  the  six  vil 
lages  on  that  formidable  height  were  the  original  ones  of  the 
Zunis.  This  much  is  certain,  that  it  was  the  place  of  refuge — 
the  citadel  or  safety  place — of  the  Zuni,  the  center  of  many  re 
ligious  performances,  and  the  object  of  many  myths.  Three 
times,  according  to  the  records,  did  the  Zuni  flee  to  the  plateau 
of  this  gigantic  rresa  within  the  course  of  two  centuries.  Each 
time  they  were  induced  to  return  to  the  valley  below  in  a  peace 
able  manner.  This  Thunder  Mountain  rises  to  the  height  of 
one  thousand  feet  above  the  plain,  and  is  almost  inaccessible. 
There  are  two  foot  trails,  each  of  which  in  places  traverses  abrupt 
slopes  of  sandstone  where  holes  have  been  pecked  into  the  rock. 
From  the  northeast  side  the  summit  of  the  mesa  can  be  reached 
by  a  tortuous  burrow  trail.  All  the  rest  of  the  mesa  is  too  abrupt 

*  Bandelier  thinks  that  Kiakima  was  the  place  where  the  negro  was  killed  and  where 
Niza  erected  the  cross.  This  has  been  disputed  by  Hodge,  who  thinks  that  Kuikawkuk 
w  as  the  first-discovered  city  of  Cibola.  The  early  Spanish  names  of  the  towns  are  Maca- 
quia  (Masaki),  Coquimo  (K'iakima),  Aquico  (Hawikuh),  Canabi  (Kianawe),  and  Alona 
(Halona).  (See  American  Anthropologist  Vol.  VIII  No.  2,  P.  142-149.) 

The  following  names  are  given  by  Mr.  Gushing  and  by  Mr.  Bandelier:  Halona  on  the 
site  of  the  present  one,  Kiakima,  south  of  the  gigantic  mesa,  Matzaki;  north  of  the  same 
mesa,  the  place  where  the  negro,  Estevan,  was  killed;  Pianaua,  three  miles  south  of  the 
actual  Zuni;  Huhauien,  Zuni  hot  springs;  Chanahue,  the  same  vicinity.  Bandelier  Vol.  Ill, 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PUEBLOS.  61 

to  be  scaled.  The  top  of  the  mesa  was  an  irregular  figure,  one 
mile  in  width,  and  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  perpendicular 
cliffs."* 

"The  narrative  of  Castaneda  describes  Cibola  as  built  on  a  rock. 
The  road  leading  to  it  was  both  narrow  and  winding.  It  was 
no  easy  achievement  to  get  possession  of  it.  The  village  of 
Zuni,  as  it  now  stands,  is  built  upon  a  small  knoll  on  the  bank  of 
the  Zuni  river,  three  miles  west  of  the  conspicuous  Mesa.  It  is 
the  successor  of  all  the  original  seven  cities  of  Cibola,  and  is  the 
largest  of  the  Pueblos.  At  this  point  the  river  is  perennial,  it 
has  no  special  advantages  for  defense,  but  the  convenience  to 
large  areas  of  tillable  soil  led  to  the  selection  of  the  site.  It 
displays  a  remarkable  compact  arrangement  of  dwellings,  some 
of  which  have  been  carried  to  a  great  height.  Five  distinct 
terraces  may  be  seen  on  the  south  side  of  the  cluster,  though 
the  highest  point  is  said  to  have  reached  a  height  of  seven  ter 
races  at  one  time.  The  arrangement  of  dwellings  about  a  court, 
characteristic  of  the  ancient  pueblos,  is  not  seen  ;  for  the  original 
building  had  been  covered  with  rooms  of  later  date.  The  old 
ceremonial  kivas  in  rooms  for  the  meeting  of  the  various  orders 
or  secret  societies  were  crowded  into  the  innermost  recesses  of 
this  innermost  portion.f" 

General  Simpson  says  that  it  is  far  more  compact  than  Santa 
Domingo  —  its  streets  being  narrow  and  in  places  presenting  the 
appearance  of  tunnels,  or  covered  ways,  on  account  of  the  houses 
extending  over  them.J 

Acoma,  whose  remarkable  situation  on  the  top  of  a  high  rock 
has  made  it  the  most  conspicuous  object  in  New  Mexico  for 
nearly  three  centuries,  is  easily  identified.  The  case  is,  how- 

*See  Plate,  Eighth  Annual  Report,  P.  89. 

tSee  Eighth  Annual  Report  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  97. 


villages  of  the  Moquis  were  situated  northwest  from  the  Zunis,  twenty-five  leagues 
but  Coronado  seems  to  have  passed  by  them  on  his  way  to  Cibola. 

This  Cibola  was  the  first  pueblo  which  Coronado  reached  on  his  way  eastward  and  the 
last  one  which  he  left  on  his  return.  Espejo  in  1583  visited  the  same  region  and  after  leav 
ing  Acoma  turned  toward  the  west  to  a  certain  province  called  by  the  inhabitants  of  Zuni, 
and  by  the  Spaniards,  Cibola;  in  which  province  Coronado  had  erected  many  crosses 
which  yet  remain  standing. 

The  American  Atlas  by  Thomas  Jefferys,  London,  1773,  gives  Zuni  and  Cibola  as 
synonimous  names. 

Bandelier  gives  the  following  evidence  that  the  Zuni  and  Cibola  have  been  properly 
identified.  He  quotes  Castaneda.  (i.)  "Twenty  leagues  to  the  northwest  is  another  pro 
vince  which  contains  seven  villages  the  inhabitants  have  the  same  costumes,  customs  and 
religion"  as  "those  of  Cibola,"  "Tucayan  "  This  was  called  by  "Jaramillo  Tucayan  to  the 
left  of  Cibola,  about  five  days'  march.  West  of  them  is  the  river  called  "Rio  del  Tizon" 
or  Gila  River.  (2.)  Five  days  journey  to  the  east  there  was  a  village  called  Acuco.  Tara- 
millo  says:  "A  village  in  a  very  strong  situation  on  a  precipitous  rock  called  Tutanaco. 
(3.)  This  village  "  Tutahaco,"  Acoma,  lay  between  Cibola  and  the  stream  running  to  the 
southwest,  according  to  Jaramillo,  "entering  the  sea  of  the  north."  (4.)  Jaramillo  says: 
"All  the  water  courses  which  we  met  whether  they  were  streams  or  rivers,  until  that  of 
Cibola,  and  I  believe  in  one  or  two  journeyings  beyond,  flow  into  the  South  Sea."  (<>.)  "All 
the  writers  from  Antonio  del  Espejo,  1584,  down  to  Gen.  J.  H.  Simpson,  1871,  have  identified 
Zuni  with  Cibola." 

In  regard  to  the  identity  of  the  Moqui  district  with  the  Tusayan,  he  says.  It  was 
first  made  known  under  the  name  of  Mohoce  in  1^83,  by  Antonio  de  Espejo,  "Four 
journeys  of  seven  leagues  each  westward  from  Cibola."  One  of  its  pueblos  was  called 
"Aguato,"  Awatobi.  Fifteen  years  later  in  1588,  Juan  de  Onate  found  a  pueblo  Mohoce 
twenty  leagues  westward  of  the  first  one  of  Zuni.  (See  papers  of  A.  I.  A.  Page  12,  Vol.  I.) 


62  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

ever,  different  with  Tiguex.  It  is  mentioned  as  lying  three  days 
from  Acoma,  but  the  direction  is  not  given.  The  belief  has  been 
expressed  that  Santa  Fe  stands  on  the  old  site  of  Tiguex.  W. 
H.  Davis  locates  it  on  the  Rio  Puerco,  and  Cicuye  on  the  Rio 
Grande  some  where  near  the  valley  of  Guadalupe.  Gen.  Simp 
son  places  it  at  the  foot  of  Socorro  Mountains  on  the  Rio  Grande 
and  Cicuye  at  Pecos.  Bandelier  places  Tiguex  near  Bernalillo, 
and  identifies  Tutahaco  four  leagues  to  the  south  of  Tiguex  with 
Isleta,  and  says  that  this  was  on  the  same  river  as  Tiguex.  From 
it  Coronado  ascended  the  stream  to  Tiguex.  Castaneda  says 
that  "Tigeux  is  the  central  point." 

An  expedition  was  sent  from  it  which  discovered  in  succes 
sion  Quirix  on  the  river,  with  seven  villages,  the  Quires  district 
including  San  Domingo,  Cochiti,  San  Felipe,  Santa  Ana  and 
Cia,  near  the  Rio  Grande,  Aguas,  Calientes,  three  villages , 
Acha  Picuries  to  the  northeast,  and  "Braba"  Taos  far  to  the 
northeast.  Bandelier  says  it  is  unmistakable  and  refers  to  Cas 
taneda  and  Jean  Bleau.* 

Recent  investigation  has  thus  enabled  us  to  locate  at  the  time 
of  the  first  discovery  a  large  number  of  the  principal  pueblos,  or 
groups  of  pueblos,  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  The  pueblo  of 
Casa  Grande  appears  to  have  occupied  at  that  time  the  identical 
position  in  which  it  is  found  to-day.  The  pueblo  of  Zuni  occu 
pies  the  ground  claimed  by  the  cluster  to  which  the  name  of 
"Cibola,"  or  "Seven  Cities,"  was  given,  but  it  is  the  only  remain 
ing  one  of  the  seven,  and  is  probably  a  recent  construction.  The 
Moqui  towns  appear  to  be  the  same  which  the  Spaniards  found 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  probable  also  that  Isleta 
is  the  same  as  Tutahaco,  which  Coronado  reached  in  "  eight  or 
eleven  days,"  and  Acoma  the  same  as  Acuco.  Pecos  was  situated 
on  the  Tiguex  Rio  Grande,  and  is  the  same,  as  Cicuye. 

*  Simpson  says:  There  were  a  number  of  villages  visited  by  Coronado  which  were  situ 
ated  on  the  Rio  Grande  or  its  tributa<ies— Quirix  unquestionably,  San  Felipe,  De  (jueres. 
In  the  Sn  >w  mountains,  seven;  Kimena.  three;  Chia,  one;  Silla  (Lia),  Hemes,  Jemmes, 
Aguas,  Caliemes,  the  ruins  which  I  have  seen  at  Ojos  Caliemts,  twelve  miles  above  the 
Hemes  on  the  Rio  de  Hemes  and  Braba  Taos.  The  last  town  on  the  Rio,  Tiguex.  was 
built  on  the  two  banks  ot  a  stream,  which  was  crossed  by  bridges  built  of  nicely  squared 
pine  timber.) 


CHAPTER    V. 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  OCCUPATION. 

The  geological  history  of  the  great  plateau  of  the  west  is  so 
closely  connected  with  the  history  of  the  people  that  it  seems  ab 
solutely  necessary  that  we  should  get  a  correct  idea  of  it  before 
we  proceed.  The  following  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  J.  S.  Newberry 
will  be  appropriate.*  He  says  :  "To  what  cause  is  due  the  mesa, 
or  table  land  plateau  of  the  country?  This  much  we  can  fairly 
infer  from  the  observations  already  made;  that  the  outlines  of 
the  North  American  continent  were  approximately  marked  out 
from  the  earliest  palaeozoic  times.  Many  thousand  feet  of  sedi 
mentary  strata  were  converted  into  dry  land,  by  the  gradual  up 
heaval  of  the  plutonic  rocks,  upon  which  they  were  deposited. 
Gradually  they  were  raised,  without  much  disturbance,  to  their 
unequal  positions,  though  lines  of  more  powerful  upheavals  can 
be  traced  in  the  increased  heights  of  the  table  lands,  while  here 
and  there  volcanic  forces  have  thrust  up  huge  masses  of  igueous 
rock  through  the  sedimentary  crust,  forming  mountains  more  or 
less  isolated  and  of  great  beauty,  which  contrast  strongly  with 
the  eroded  mesa  lands,  among  which  they  rise. 

"The  plateau  of  the  Colorado  itself  has  been  raised  to  an  av 
erage  of  7,000  feet.  It  extends  in  a  north-northwest  direction 
from  a  point  southeast  from  San  Francisco  mountain  across  the 
Little  Colorado  into  Utah,  and  includes  the  country  traversed 
by  Grand  and  Green  river,  as  well  as  a  more  considerable  part 
of  that  crossed  by  the  Colorado,  Chiquito  and  the  San  Juan. 

"From  their  source  onward  these  two  rivers  and  their  tribu 
taries,  in  their  passage  over  the  table  lands  of  the  great  central 
plateau,  have  cut  their  way  in  channels  which  deepen  continu 
ally  as  they  advance,  and  also  present  fewer  and  fewer  open  val 
leys  as  they  progress,  to  break  the  narrow,  sunless  perpendicular 
ity  of  their  gigantic  walls. 

"In  the  case  of  the  Colorado,  this  penetrative  tendency  cul 
minated  in  a  canyon  3,000  to  6,000  feet  deep.  Over  the  plateau 
the  Colorado  river  flowed  for  at  least  300  miles  of  its  course,  but 
in  the  lapse  of  ages  its  rapid  current  has  cut  its  bed  through  all 
the  sedimentary  strata,  and  several  hun  Jred  feet  into  the  granite 
base  on  which  they  rest. 

"For  three  hundred  miles  the  cut  edges  of  the  mesas  rise  up 

*Dr.  Newberry,  who  accompanied  Lieut.  Joseph  C.  Ives  on  his  exploration  of  the  Rio  Color 
ado,  on  the  Gulf  of  California,  was  one  of  the  first  geologists  who  ever  wrote  a  description  of  the 
Grand  Canyon.  His  description  is  graphic,  and  at  the  same  time  is  full  of  the  geological  facts 
which  came  from  his  general  knowlddge  of  geology.  We,  therefore,  quote  from  it  extensively. 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


abruptly,  often  perpendicularly,  forming  walls  3,000  feet  to  over 
a  mile  in  height.  This  is  the  Grand  Canyon  of  the  Colorado, 
the  most  magnificent  geological  section,  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge. 

"The  plateau  itself,  as  well  as  the  great  canyon,  belongs  to  a 
vast  system  of  erosion  and  is  wholly  due  to  the  action  of  water. 
Probably  no  wherein  the  world  has  the  action  of  this  agent  pro 
duced  results  so  surprising  as  regards  their  magnitude  and 
peculiar  character. 

"By  a  glance  at  the  map  it  will  be  seen  that  this  great  water 
shed  made  up  of  the  San  Francisco  group,  the  Mogollon,  and  the 
spurs  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  which  throw  the  water  into  the 
Colorado  from  the  south,  southeast  and  east,  forms  a  semi-circle 


MOUNTAIN  OF  THE  HOLY  CROSS. 


imperfectly  parallel  with  the  course  of 
the  Colorado." 

Dr.  Newberry  thus  speaks  of  the  Moqui  country  and  the  dis 
trict  beyond : 

The  mesa  is  geologically  and  physically  the  highest  which  we  actually 
passed  over  on  our  route.  We  seemed  to  be  rising  step  upon  step  and 
mesa  upon  mesa,  until  we  reached  this  plateau.  At  the  Moqui  villages  the 
strata  forming  great  table  lands  began  to  rise  toward  the  east.  Near  Fort 
Defiance,  the  summit  has  an  altitude  of  8,000  feet.  Here  they  show  the 
disturbing  influence  of  a  more  westerly  axis  of  elevation,  namely  that  of 
the  Rocky  mountains.  In  the  interval  between  Fort  Defiance  and  the  Rio 
Grande,  the  great  volcanic  mountain,  Mount  Taylor,  like  San  PYancisco 
mountain,  has  broken  through  the  crust  of  the"  sedimentary  rocks  and 
poured  their  floods  of  lava  over  .the  surface.  Beyond  this  is  the  valley  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  which  runs  in  a  deep  gorge  between  the  folds  of  the  mesa, 
the  tributaries  to  which  have  cut  deep  seams,  leaving  many  abrupt  tongues 
of  land  high  peaks,  which  are  called  "portreros,"  among  which  the  Cave- 
dwellers  made  their  homes.  To  the  east  of  the  Rio  Grande  rises  another 
p'ateau  which  is  creased  by  the  wearing  of  the  Pecos  river,  then  come  the 
foothills  of  the  Rocky  mountains. 

It  was  across  this  great  plateau  that  the  Spaniards  made  their 
way  in  1540,  and  discovered  the  Grand  Canyon. 

Professor  Winthrop  has  translated  the  reports  which  were 
made  of  this  expedition  by  Castaneda,  also  a  letter  from  Men- 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  65 

doza  to  the  King,  and  from  Coronado  to  Mendozi,  all  in  the 
year  1540;*  he  has  also  furnished  a  description  of  the  appearance 
of  the  cavalcade.  The  following  is  the  description  : 

It  was  a  splendid  airay  a-  it  passed  in  review  before  Mendoza  on  Sun 
day  morning,  February,  1540.  The  >oung  cavaliers  curbed  the  nicked 
horses  from  the  large  stock  farms  of  the  viceroy,  each  resplendent  in  long- 
blankets  flowing  to  the  ground.  Each  rider  held  his  lance  erect  while  his 
sword  and  other  weapons  hung  in  their  proper  places  at  his  side  Some 
were  arrayed  in  coats -of-mail,  polished  to  shine  like  that  of  their  general, 
whose  gilded  armor,  with  its  brilliant  trappings  was  to  bring  him  many 
hard  blows  a  few  months  later.  Others  wore  iron  helmets,  or  visored  head 
pieces,  of  the  tough  bull  hide  for  which  the  country  has  ever  been  famous. 
ine footmen  carried  crossbows  and  harquebuses,  while  some  of  them  were 
armed  with  bow  and  shield.  Looking  on,  at  these  white  men,  with  their 
weapons  of  European  warfare,  was  the  crowd  of  native  allies,  in  their  paint 
and  holiday  attire,  armed  with  the  bow  and  club  of  the  Indian  warrior. 
When  all  of  these  started  off  the  next  morning,  in  duly  ordered  companies, 
with  their  banners  flying.  Upwards  of  a  thousand  servants  and  followers, 
black  men,  red  men,  went  with  them,  leading  the  spare  hors9s  and  driving 
the  pack  animals  bearing  the  extra  baggage  of  their  masters,  or  herding  the 
large  droves  of  "big  and  little  cattle,"  of  oxen  and  cows  and  sheep,  and 
maybe  swine,  which  had  been  selected  by  the  viceroy  to  assure  fresh  food 
for  the  army  on  its  march.  There  were  more  than  a  thousand  horses  in  the 
train  of  the  force,  besides  mules  loaded  with  camp  supplies  and  provisions, 
and  carrying  half  a  dozen  pieces  of  li^ht  artillery— the  pedreros  or  swivel 
guns  of  the  period. 

Coronado  entered  the  wilderness  on  St.  John's  eve,  and  in  the  quaint 
language  of  Hakluyt's  translation  of  the  general's  letter,  "to  refresh  our 
former  traveiles,  the  first  days  we  found  no  grasse  but  worser  v  ay  of  moun 
tains  and  badde  passages."  The  first  few  days  of  the  march  were  very  try 
ing;  the  discouragements  of  the  men  increased  with  the  difficulties  of  the 
way,  but  they  proceeded  until  they  came  in  sight  of  the  Seven  Cities.  The 
inhabitants  had  assembled  in  a  great  crowd  in  front  of  the  place,  awaiting 
the  approach  of  the  strangers,  Coronado  prepared  for  an  assault  on  the 
city.  _  The  natives  showered  arrows  against  the  advancing  foes,  and  as  the 
Spaniards  approached  the  walls,  stones  of  all  sizes  were  thrown  upon  them. 
The  courage  and  military  skill  of  the  white  men  proved  too  much  for  the 
Indians.  They  were  driven  from  the  main  portion  of  the  town.  Food, 
which  they  needed  a  great  deal  more  than  gold  and  silver,  was  found  in  the 
rooms,  During  the  night  the  Indians  packed  up  what  goods  they  could 
and  left  the  Spaniards  in  undisputed  possession. 

The  first  expedition  toward  the  east  was  sent  out  August  2gth,  in  charge 
of  Alvarado,  who  reached  the  river  Tiguex  (the  Rio  Grande),  September  7. 
and  spent  some  time  in  visiting  the  villages,  making  headquarters  at 
Tiguex,  near  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Bernalillo.  Alvarado  sent  to 
the  general  the  names  o  eighty  villages,  which  he  had  learned  from  the 
natives,  and  reported  that  these  eighty  villages  were  the  best  that  had 
yet  been  found.  He  then  proceeded  to  Cicuye,  or  Pecos,  the  most  eastern 
of  the  walled  villages.  The  first  winter  spent  in  the  pueblos  of  New  Mex 
ico  was  a  severe  one,  but  the  strangers  were  comfortably  domiciled  in  the 
best  houses  of  the  country,  in  which  the  owners  left  a  plentiful  supply  of 
food.  The  natives  assumed  a  hostile  attitude,  and  were  subdued  only  after,, 
a  protracted  stuggle.  The  army  started  on  its  return  from  Tiguex  to  Ci- 
bola,  Culiacan  and  Mexico  in  the  spring  of  1542. 

Coronado  found  no  gold  in  the  land  ot  the  "seven  cities"  or 
in  Quivira.  Though  his  search  added  much  to  the  geographical 
knowledge  of  the  country,  and  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  one 

*See  XI  Vth  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of  Ethnology; 


66  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

of  the  grandest  and  most  stupendous  objects  on  the  American 
continent,  and,  in  fact,  on  the  globe,  namely,  the  Canyon  of  the 
Colorado.  He  fell  under  the  displeasure  of  the  viceroy  and 
sank  into  obscurity.  Owing  to  these  discouraging  experiences, 
the  Spaniards  for  many  years  paid  little  attention  to  New  Mexico. 

*"\Yhen  ill  reports  of  Coronado  had  been  forgotten,  there  began  another 
Spanish  movement  into  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  In  1581  three  Spanish 
missionaries  started  from  Santa  Barbara  in  Mexico,  with  an  escort  of  n'ne 
Spanish  soldiers  under  command  of  Francisco  Sanchez  Chomuscado.  They 
passed  up  the  Rio  Grande  to  where  Beinallilo  now  is,  and  there  the  mis 
sionaries  remained  until  assassinated  by  their  treacherous  flock. 

"In  the  following  year  Antonio  de  Espejo,  a  wealthy  native  of  Cordova, 
started  also  from  Santa  Barbara  with  fourteen  men,  to  face  the  deserts  and 
the  savages  of  New  Mexico.  He  marched  up  the  Rio  Grande  to  a  point 
above  where  Alberquerque  now  stands.  He  visited  the  cities  of  Sia,  Jemez, 
lofty  Acoma  Zuni,  and  the  far  off  Moqui  towns,  and  traveled  a  long  way 
into  northern  Arizona,  Returning  to  the  Rio  Grande,  he  visited  the  pueblo 
of  Pecos,  which  was  then  inhabited,  went  down  the  Pecos  river  into  Texas, 
and  thence  crossed  back  to  Santa  Barbara. 

"In  1590  Gasper  Castano  de  Losa,  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Leon, 
made  an  expedition  into  New  Mexico,  but  without  the  consent  of  the 
viceroy.  He  came  up  the  Rio  Grande,  but  at  the  pueblo  of  Santa  Domin 
go  was  arrested,  and  was  carried  home  in  irons. 

"In  1595  Juan  de  Onate,  who  maybe  called  the  colonizer  of  New  Mex 
ico,  and  who  was  a  native  of  Zacetacas,  Mexico,  and  owned  rich  mines  in 
that  region,  made  a  contract  with  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain  to  colonize  New 
Mexico  at  his  own  expense.  He  made  all  preparations,  and  fitted  out  his 
costly  expedition  which  had  cost  him  the  equivalent  of  a  million  of  dollars. 
He  took  with  him  four  hundred  colonists,  including  two  hundred  soldiers, 
with  women  and  children,  and  herds  of  sheep  and  cattle.  Taking  forma) 
possession  of  the  country,  he  moved  up  the  Rio  Grande  to  where  the  ham 
let  of  Chomito  now  is,  and  founded  San  Gabriel,  the  second  town  in  the 
United  States.  He  was  successful  in  putting  down  a  revolt  at  Acoma,  and 
in  1604  marched  with  thirty  men  from  San  Gabriel  across  the  desert  to  the 
Gulf  of  California.  In  1605  he  founded  Santa  Fe,  the  city  of  the  Holy 
Faith  of  St.  Frances;  and  in  1606  he  made  an  expedition  to  the  far  north 
east. 

"New  Mexico  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  after  the 
Spaniards  had  spent  a  hundred  years  of  ceaseless  exploration  and  con 
quest,  had  hundreds  of  towns  which  Spanish  missionaries  were  attempt 
ing  to  civilize. 

"The  Rio  Grande  valley,  in  New  Mexico,  was  beaded  with  Spanish 
settlements,  from  Santa  Cruz  to  below  Socorro,  200  miles;  and  there  were 
also  colonies  in  Taos,  in  the  extreme  north  of  the  territory.  There  had 
been  expeditions,  which  had  penetrated  the  staked  plain,  Llano  Estacado, 
to  the  southeast  and  others  to  the  far  northwest."  It  is  supposed  that  the 
region  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  was  reached. 

"There  were  then  1300  Spaniards  on  the  Rio  Grande,  all  living  in  Santa 
Fe  or  in  scattered  farm  settlements.  The  life  of  the  colonists  was  a  daily 
battle  with  nature,  for  New  Mexico  was  ever  a  semi-arid  land.  They  were 
surrounded  with  danger,  for  there  were  frequent  incursions  of  the  cruel 
.Apaches,  and  there  was  no  rest  from  the  attempts  of  the  Pueblos  at  insur 
rection. 

"In  1080  the  great  revolt  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  occurred.  Thirty-four 
Pueblo  towns  were  engaged  in  it.  It  was  led  by  a  dangerous  Tehua  Indian 
named  Pope.  Secret  rumors  had  gone  from  pueblo  to  pueblo,  and  the 
murderous  blow  fell  upon  the  whole  territory  simultaneously.  Over  400 
Spaniards  were  assassinated,  including  21  of  the  missionaries.  Antonio  de 
Otermin  was  governor  of  New  Mexico.  He  was  attacked  in  his  capital  of 

*These  quotations  are  from  "The  Spanish  Pioneers,"  by  Charles  F.  Lummis. 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  67 

Santa  Fe,  and  120  Spanish  soldiers  soon  found  themselves  unable  to  hold 
it  against  their  swarming  besiegers.  After  a  week's  desperate  defense, 
they  fled,  taking  their  women  and  children  with  them.  They  retreated 
down  the  Rio  Grande,  and  reached  the  pueblo  Isleta  in  safety,  butthe  vil 
lage  was  deserted.  The  Spaniards  were  obliged  to  continue  their  flight  to 
El  Paso,  Texas,  which  was  then  a  Spanish  mission.* 

"For  ten  years  New  Mexico  was  deserted  by  the  Spaniards,  though  fre 
quent  invasions  were  made  fiom  El  Paso.  In  1692  Diego  de  Vargas 
marched  to  Santa  Fe  and  thence  to  Moqui  with  only  89  men.  He  visited 
every  pueblo  in  the  province,  meeting  no  opposition,  but  when  he  under 
took  to  colonize,  the  Indians  gave  him  the  bloodiest  reception.  Then  be 
gan  the  siege  of  the  black  mesa  of  San  Ildefonso.  De  Vargas  also  stormed 
the  impregnable  citadel  of  the  Potrero  Viego  and  the  beetling  cliff  of  San 
Diego  de  Jemez.  These  costly  lessons  kept  the  Indians  quiet  until  1696, 
when  they  broke  out  again  in  revolt,  but  were  soon  subdued.  Then  came 
a  dismal  hundred  years  of  ceaseless  harassment  by  the  Apaches,  Navajos 
and  Comanches,  and  occasionally  by  the  Utes, 

The  Indian  wars  were  constant,  but  the  explorations  by  the  Spaniards 
were  frequent.  They  extended  into  Texas  and  settlement  soon  followed. 
The  Spanish  colonization  of  Colorado  was  slow,  and  they  had  no  towns 
north  of  the  Arkansas  river.  In  Arizona,  a  Jesuit  mission  was  established 
and  continued  from  1689  to  1717.  Father  Franciscus  Eusebius  Kuehne 
made  four  journeys  on  foot  from  Sonora  to  the  Gila,  and  descended  that 
stream  to  its  junction  with  the  Colorado.'' 

The  Spaniards,  notwithstanding  their  long  residence  and 
extensive  acquaintance  with  the  Pueblo  territory,  never  discov 
ered  the  cliff  dwellings,  or  if  they  did,  they  never  made  a 
record  of  them.  There  was  an  expedition  towards  the  north 
ern  part  of  the  territory  and  beyond,  which  led  very  near  to 
them,  but  did  not  result  in  their  discovery.  It  was  conducted 
by  two  Franciscan  Friars,  Dominquez  and  Escalante,  who  in 
1776  started  out  from  Santa  Fe  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
the  route  to  Monterey,  and  to  California  and  the  sea. 

The  party  consisted  of  the  two  priests  and  five  soldiers 
They  took  the  road  to  Abiquieu  and  the  Rio  Chama,  and  reach 
ed  a  point  called  Nueves  on  the  San  Juan,  three  leagues  belcw 
the  junction  of  the  Navajo.  They  crossed  the  San  Juan,  passed 
down  the  north  bank,  north  of  the  Colorado  line,  and  found 
themselves  on  a  branch  of  the  San  Juan  some  distance  north 
of  the  Mancos  canyon,  and  on  the  I2th  day  of  May  encamp 
ed  on  the  Dolores.  This  part  of  their  route  was  in  the  neigh- 
oorhood  of  the  cliff  dwellings,  but  they  did  not  seem  to  have 
gained  any  knowledge  of  them.  The  beginning  of  their  route 
was  the  same  as  the  old  Spanish  trail  from  Santa  Fe  to  Los 
Angeles.  They  afterward  took  a  route  which  was  about  the 
same  as  the  Spanish  trail  from  Santa  Fe  to  the  Salt  Lake,— 
the  same  trail  that  Captain  Macomb  followed  in  his  survey. 
On  the  23rd  of  May  they  left  the  San  Pedro  and  passed  north- 


*The  revolt  of  1680  seems  to  have  resulted  in  the  temporary  abandonment  of  the  country  by 
the  Spaniards  but  was  followed  by  a  great  reduction  of  the  native  population  in  the  entire  aban 
donment  of  many  of  their  pueblos.  Nearly  all  the  Queres  villages  below  San  Felipe  were  aban 
doned,  and  new  villages  were  erected  below  El  Paso  which  bear  the  same  name  as  the  old.  At 
the  present  there  is  but  a  single  vi'.lage  at  Jemez,  that  on  the  rock  which  was  so  long  beseiged  by 
the  Spaniards.  There  were  atTiguex,  in  Coronado's  time,  eleven  villages;  at  present  Bernallillo 
is  the  only  town.  It  lies  5,084  feet  above  the  sea,  but  the  Sandia  Mountain,  five  miles  west,  is 
10,069  feet  high  and  descends  almost  perpendicularly. 


68  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

eest  to  the  Rio  San  Francisco,  and  camped  in  a  rancheria  of 
Utes,  and  sought  to  secure  a  guide  to  the  Lagunas,  or  Timpa- 
nagos,  where  they  had  been  told  to  look  for  Pueblo  towns. 
Pursuing  a  northwest  course  they  crossed  the  San  Raphael,  or 
Colorado,  where  were  signs  of  buffalo.  They  crossed  the  San 
Benaventura,  which  was  the  boundary  between  the  Utes  and 
the  Comanches,  at  a  place  called  Santa  Cruz.  From  this  point 
they  went  westward  and  came  in  sight  of  the  Lake  of  the  Tim- 
panagos,  now  named  Utah  Lake. 

There  were  here  no  town  builders  like  the  Moquis  and  Zunis,  as  the 
priests  had  been  told,  but  there  were  many  wild  Indians.  These  Indians 
gave  the  priests  a  kind  of  heiroglyphic  paintings  on  deer  skin  to  show  them 
their  desire  to  adopt  the  Christian  faith,  The  Utes  dwelt  in  huts  made  of 
osiers.  They  made  their  utensils  of  the  same  material.  The  Comanches 
lived  in  huts  made  from  grass  and  earth, — the  latter  of  which  forms  the  roof. 
The  Utes  wear  clothes  made  from  the  skins  of  bears  and  antelopes. 

The  party  abandoned  the  hope  of  reaching  the  sea,  and  they 
turned  southwest  and  reached  the  Beaver  river,  which  is  now 
called  Escalante  river.  They  returned  by  way  of  the  Moqui 
villages  and  reached  Santa  Fe  after  an  absence  of  about  four 
months. 

These  various  explorations  by  the  Spaniards,  bring  to  view 
the  territory  which  was  occupied  by  the  pueblos ;  a  territory  which 
is  now  divided  up  into  four  states,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Col 
orado  and  Utah,  and  is  traversed  by  two  great  rivers,  the  Rio 
Grande  on  the  east  and  the  Colorado  and  its  branches  on  the 
west,  and  in  a  general  way  is  bounded  by  four  others:  Pecos 
on  the  east,  Dolores  on  the  north,  Colorado  on  the  west,  and 
the  Gila  on  the  south. 

The  Rio  Grande  was  the  river  on  which  the  largest  number 
of  inhabited  pueblos  were  found,  as  it  was  the  river  on  which 
the  largest  number  of  Spanish  missions  were  established. 
These  missions  resulted  in  the  erection  of  large  churches  in  all 
the  prominent  places,  many  of  which  are  still  standing,  though 
in  ruins,  and  are  often  mistaken  by  tourists  and  travellers  for 
prehistoric  structures.  The  history  of  these  churches  will  be 
appropriate  here. 

Mr.  C.  F.  Lummis  has  written  a  chapter  on  church  builders. 
The  following  are  extracts  from  his  very  interesting  book, 
"The  Spanish  Pioneers:" 

The  first  church  in  New  Mexico,  at  San  Gabriel,  was  founded  in  Sep 
tember  1598,  by  the  ten  missionaries  who  accompanied  Juan  de  Onate.  In 
1608  a  church  was  erected  at  Santa  Fe. 

In  1617,  three  years  before  Plymouth  Rock,  there  were  already  eleven 
churches  in  use  in  New  Mexico,  viz:  at  the  dangerous  Indian  pueblos  Pecos 
and  Galisteo,  on  the  east;  one  in  the  far  north  at  Taos,  two  at  Jemez, 
one  hundred  miles  west  of  Santa  Fe  in  an  appalling  wilderness,  and  others  at 
nearly  all  of  the  large  towns.  It  was  a  wonderful  achievement,  for  each 
lonely  missionary  so  soon  to  have  induced  his  barbarous  flock  to  build  a 
big  stone  church  and  worship  there  the  new  white  God. 

The  churches  in  the  two  Jemez  pueblos  had  to  be  abandoned  about  1622  » 
on  account  of  the  harassment  by  the  Navajos,  but  were  occupied  again  in 
1626.  At  Zuni,  far  west  of  the  fiver  and  three  hundred  miles  from  Santa 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  60 

Fe,  the  missionaries  had  established  themselves  as  early  as  1629,  and  in  the 
same  period  they  built  three  churches  among  the  wonderful  cliff  towns  of 
Moqui.  Down  the  Rio  Grande  there  was  a  similar  activity.  At  the  ancient 
pueblo  of  San  Antonio  a  church  was  founded  in  1629,  and  another  at  the 
pueblo  Nuestea  Senora,  now  Soccorro.  The  church  in  the  pueblo  of 
Picures,  in  the  northern  mountains,  was  built  before  1632,  and  the  one  at 
Isleta,  in  the  center  of  New  Mexico,  was  built  before  1635;  one  at  Nambe 
in  1642. 

In  1662  a  church  was  built  at  El  Paso  del  Norte,  a  dangerous  frontier 
mission,  hundreds  of  miles  from  Spanish  settlements  in  Old  and  New 
Mexico. 

One  can  see  from  the  windows  of  the  train  on  the  Santa  Fe  route,  a 
large  adobe  ruin.  It  is  the  old  church  of  the  pueblo  of  Pecos,*  whose  walls 
were  reared  275  years  ago.  The  pueblo  was  the  largest  in  New  Mexico, 
but  was  deserted  in  1840.  Its  great  quadrangle  of  many  storied  Indian 
houses  is  in  utter  ruin,  but  above  their  gray  mounds  still  tower  the  walls  of 
the  old  church. 

The  missionaries  also  crossed  the  mountains  east  of  the  Rio  Grande 
and  established  missions  among  the  Pueblos  who  dwelt  on  the  edge  of  the 
Great  Plains. 

The  churches  at  Cuarai,  Abo  and  Tabira  are  the  grandest  ruins  in  the 
United  States,  and  were  built  between  1660  and  1670,  and  about  the  same 
time  as  thechurches  at  Tajique  and  Chilili.  Besides  all  these  the  pueblos  of 
Zia,  Santa  Ana,  Tsuque,  Projoaque.  San  Juan,  San  Marcos,  San  Lazaro,  San 
Cristobal,  Alameda,  Santa  Cruz,  and  Cochiti,  had  each  a  church  by  1680. 
A  century  before  our  nation  was  born,  the  Spanish  had  built,  in  one  of  our 
territories,  half  a  hundred  permanent  churches,  nearly  all  of  stone  and  some 
of  them  of  immense  proportions. 

This  great  zeal  in  building  churches,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
oppressions  of  the  Spanish,  resulted  in  the  frequent  murdering  of  the  mis 
sionaries,  and  finally  in  the  revolt  of  1680.  It  was  almost  a  habit  with  the 
natives  to  kill  the  missionaries.  It  was  not  the  sin  of  one  or  two  towns 
but  nearlv  all,  for  twenty  different  towns,  at  one  time  or  another,  murdered 
their  respective  missionaries.  Some  towns  repeated  the  crime  several 
times.  Up  to  the  year  1700,  forty  of  these  quiet  heroes  in  gray  had  been 
slain  in  New  Mexico,— two  by  the  Apaches,  but  the  rest  by  their  own  flock. 

This  plan  of  building  massive  churches  and  bringing  the 
natives,  who  had  been  for  centuries  accustomed  to  the  wor 
ship  of  the  "rain  god"  in  their  estufas  or  subterranean  chamb 
ers,  to  the  severe  tusks  of  erecting  and  supporting  them,  was 
in  violation  to  the  traditions  of  the  people  and  contrary  to  all 
their  habits. 

The  celebrated  Dr.  Flinders  W.  Petrie  has  said: 

The  civilization  of  any  race  is  not  a  system  which  can  be  changed  at 
will.  To  alter  such  a  system,  apart  from  its  condition?,  is  impossibe. 
Every  civilization  is  the  growing  product  of  a  very  complex  set  of  condi 
tions,  depending  on  race  and  character,  on  climate,  on  trade,  and  every 
minutia  of  the  circumstances.  Whenever  a  total  change  is  made  in  govern 
ment  it  breaks  down  altogether,  and  a  resort  to  a  despotism  of  one  man  is 
the  result.  We  may  despotically  force  a  bold  and  senseless  imitation  of 
pur  way  on  another  people,  but  we  should  only  destroy  their  light  without 
implanting  any  vitality  in  its  place.  No  change  is  beneficial  to  the  real 

»We  have  given  a  plate  which  illustrates  the  size  and  shape  of  the  church  which  remains  in 
ruins  at  Pecos,  of  which  Mr.  Lummis  has  given  a  description.  It  has  been  kindly  loaned  to  us 
by  Messrs.  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 

The  Rock  of  Acoma,  which  is  also  represented  in  the  plate,  is  surmounted  by  an  ancient 
pueblo,  in  the  midst  of  which  is  another  massive  church  building  which  rises  above  the  walls  of 
the  pueblo  and  is  the  most  prominent  object  in  the  landscape. 

Mr.  C.  F.  Lummis,  in  his  volume  "Poco  Tempo,"  has  given  several  cuts  of  the  churches  at 
Tabira,  Abo  and  Cuarai. 


70  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

character   of   a   people  except  what  flows  from   conviction,  and  a  natural 
growth  of  the  mind. 

Such  a  system,  the  product  of  such  extreme  conditions,  we  attempt  to 
force  on  the  least  developed  race's  and  expect  from  them  an  implicit  subser 
vience  to  our  illogical  law,  and  our  inconsistent  morality, — the  result  is 
death:  we  make  a  dead  house  and  call  it  civilization.  Scarcely  a  single 
race  can  bare  the  contact  and  the  burdens,  and  then  we  talk  complacently 
about  the  continued  decay  of  savages  before  white  men. 

It  was  inevitable  that  frequent  revolts  should  occur,  and 
that  full  submission  to  the  dominion  of  the  Spanish  should 
never  take  place,  though  there  was  an  ostensible  practice  of 
the  religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  yet  the  old  pagan  or  abor 
iginal  system  continued  and  survives  to  the  present  day. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of 
Spanish  missionaries  to  civilize  and  christianize  the  natives, 
there  was  a  very  rapid  decline  in  the  population  and  a  decrease 
in  the  number  of  the  inhabited  pueblos.  This  has  been 
accounted  for,  in  part,  by  the  incursions  of  the  savage  tribes 
who  dwelt  upon  the  borders  of  the  pueblo  territory, — the  Nav- 
ajos,  the  Apaches,  the  Utes  and  the  Comanches,— offshoots  of 
the  Athapascan  and  Shoshonian  stock,  which  originally  came 
from  the  north.  These  tribes  had  beset  the  region,  especially 
the  western  and  northern  part,  before  the  arrival  of  the  Span 
iards,  and  had  compelled  the  people  who  were  dwelling  in  the 
pueblos  and  were  cultivating  the  soil  in  the  valleys  of  the  San 
Juan  and  elsewhere,  to  build  their  houses  in  the  cliffs  as  a  mat 
ter  of  defense.  They  afterward  drove  them  from  their  retreats 
and  compelled  them  to  find  refuge  among  the  tribes  farther 
south.  The  date  of  this  migration  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  is  un 
known,  but  it  was  probably  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards. 
The  attack  of  these  wild  tribes  was  so  persistent  that  all  the 
north  and  western  part  of  the  Pueblo  territory  had  been  aban 
doned,  and  the  great  villages  which  were  situated  in  the  valley 
of  the  Gila,  as  well  as  the  cliff  dwellings  on  the  San  Juan,  the 
Rio  de  Chelly  and  the  Rio  Verde,  as  well  as  the  pueblos  on 
the  Chaco,  were  in  ruins. 

The  Spanish  writers  make  no  mention  of  villages  situated 
in  these  valleys,  nor  did  they  send  any  missionaries  there  or 
build  any  churches.  It  seems  that  only  a  very  small  portion 
of  the  pueblo  territory  was  occupied  at  the  time  of  the  arrival 
of  the  Spanish,  and  even  that  became  decimated  and  some  of 
it  depopulated  while  the  Spaniards  were  occupying  it.  It  has 
been  questioned  whether  there  was  a  decrease  in  the  pop 
ulation,  but  we  have  evidence  furnished  by  the  Spanish 
explorers  themselves.  In  1582  Antonio  de  Espejo  made  his 
expedition  up  the  Rio  Grande.  In  his  report  he  gives  the 
list  of  villages  reached  and  the  population  of  each. 

The  population  of  these  towns  was  very  much  over  estimat 
ed  by  Espejo,  but  the  number  of  inhabited  pueblos*  was  in  great 

*The  sixty  inhabited  pueblos  which  were  discovered  by  Coronado  were   reduced  to  about 
thirty. 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS. 


contrast  with  those  mentioned  by  the  American  explorers.*  Not 
one  of  these  villages  probably  contained  over  1,000  people. 
The  population,  estimated  by  the  Spaniards  at  from  25,000  to 
250,000,  is  not  now  over  10,000. 

The  following  table,  kindly  furnished  by  Mr.  F.  W.  Hodge, 
shows  the  population  after  the  Americans  .had  occupied  the 
country: 


PUEBLOS. 

Reli 
able. 
1850 

Reli 
able. 
1864 

Cen 
sus.                  PUEBLOS. 
I88Q 

Reli 
able. 
1850 

Reli 
able. 
1864 

Cen- 
su 
1889 

Aconia. 

350 
254 
751 
365 

749 
in 

222 
48 
241 

491 

229 
786 
346 
988 

94 

122 
29 
197 

cg-7     San  Felipe  

800 
500 
568 

399 
279 
666 

"4 

361 

119 

427 

161 

385 
298 

144 
604 
103 
36l 
101 
? 

501 
I89 

373 
264 
187 
930 
"3 
3^4 
94 
1547 

Cochiti          

300    San  Ildefonso.  .  .  . 
1037     San  Juan 

Isleta 

Jernez           

474     Santa  Ana  
970     Santa  Clara  
8  1     Santo  Domingo,  .  . 
Sia  

Laguna  
Nambe         

Pecos*  
Picuris 

1  20    Taos 

Pajoaque  
Sandia  

1  8     Tesuque  .... 

150  !|  Zunit  

*Moved  to  Jemez  1840.  tP° 

Later  figures  from  Census  Report  —  including  Moki. 


I>47°  >n  1805. 


There  was  nothing  in  the  Spanish  regime  which  secured  de 
fense  to  the  people  against  their  enemies.  Only  when  there 
was  a  revolt  among  the  Pueblo  tribes  themselves,  did  they 
bring  in  the  force  ot  arms  to  protect  themselves.  The  people 
had  learned  to  economize  in  wood  and  water,  and  had  ways  of 
erecting  their  own  buildings  and  irrigating  their  own  villages, 
which  were  well  adapted  to  a  semi-arid  region.  They  gather 
ed  the  rain  water  which  fell  upon  the  surface  into  reservoirs, 
led  it  through  the  center  of  the  villages,  afterwards  conducted 
it  through  the  gateways  into  other  reservoirs,  and  there  used 
it  to  irrigate  their  fields,  f 

They  sometimes  built  their  houses  on  mesas,  which  were 
reached  by  single  pathways,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  village 
of  Acoma,  which,  with  Isleta  and  Oraibe,  are  the  oldest 
pueblos  in  the  region  and  the  only  ones  that  remain  in  the 
same  sites  as  they  did  when  discovered  by  Coronado.  They 
were  thus  able  to  endure  the  attacks  of  the  savages,  though 


*Bandelier  says:  "The  villages  of  that  time  (first  half  ot  the  sixteenth  century)  were  on  an 
average  much  smaller  than  those  of  to-day  inhabited  by  Pueblo  Indians,  but  there  was  a  greater 
number  of  them.  The  aggregate  population  of  the  Pueblos  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen 
turies  did  not  exceed  25,000  souls." 

Mr.  Gushing  says:  "At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest  the  Pueblo  Indians  numbered,  all 
told,  more  than  30,000.  .  .  .  The  total  population  of  the  modern  towns  is  about  10,000." 

Not  one  of  these  villages  contained  over  1,000  people. 

Mr.  M.  L.  Miller  says:       "The  population  of  Taos  in    1864  was  361.       The  number   o 
Pueblo  Indians  at  the  time  of  their  discovery  has  been  variously  estimated .    The  largest  estimate 
is  that  of  Antonio  de  Espejo,  whose  total  figures  for  all   the  Pueblos   would   give  about  250,000. 
From  this  number  the  estimates  run  all  the  way  down  to  23,000.     Vetancurt   gives    the  figures 
the  year  1660  at  a  little  over  23,000. 

fThe  ruins  of  Pecos  which  are  presented  in  the  two  plates  illustrate  this,  as  do  the  inhabited 
villages  of  Taos. 


72  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

» 

they  allowed  tribes,  such  as  the  Queres*  and  Navajos,to  drift  in 
from  the  outside  regions,  who  adopted  the  Pueblo  style  of 
building  and  conformed  to  the  common  mode  of  life. 

The  Pueblos  had  a  system  of  worship  which  was  peculiar  to 
the  region.  They  worshipped  the  nature  powers  and  the  "rain 
god"f  under  the  symbol  of  the  serpent,  and  had  many  ceremo 
nies  which  were  founded  upon  this  system.  Every  part  of 
their  domain,  including  the  rocks,  the  springs,  the  mountains 
and  lakes,  were  sacred  to  their  divinities.  Even  their  method 
of  reckoning  time  was  by  watching  the  sun  in  its  course,  and 
noticing  its  position  over  certain  heights. 

It  was  not  strange  that  the  people  revolted.  They  were 
obliged  to  carry  heavy  timbers  long  distances  to  put  into  the 
massive  churches  erected  in  every  village  where  there  was  a 
mission.  The  difficulty  of  this  task  can  be  imagined  when  we 
look  at  the  picture  of  the  great  church  which  overshadows,  by 
its  height,  the  pueblo  on  the  summit  of  Acoma.  J  The  old  clan 
life,  and  the  rule  of  the  Caciques,  was  interfered  with.  Time 
honored  institutions  and  customs  were  broken  up.  The  rule  of 
the  priests  was  substituted  for  that  of  the  hereditary  chiefs  and 
"medicine  men." 

It  was  not  altogether  owing  to  the  attack  of  the  savages 
that  the  pueblos  were  deserted;  but  to  the  oppressions  of  the 
Spaniards,  which  continued  for  three  hundred  years,  the  only 
relief  to  which  was  the  Mexican  war  in  1846  and  their  transfer 
to  the  American  power.  To  this  the  Pueblo  tribes  gave  their 
adherence  at  the  first,  and  have  ever  since  manifested  the  most 
friendly  feeling. 

When  the  Americans  began  their  explorations  there  was 
very  little  of  the  territory  inhabited.!!  All  this  is,  how 
ever,  in  great  contrast  to  that  which  has  occurred  since  the 
Americans  began  to  Occupy  the  country. 

The  American  exploration  may  be  divided  into  a  number 
of  periods  which  followed  one  another,  according  to  succession 
or  order  of  time;  each  of  which  has  produced  important  results. 

The  first  series  began  with  the  capture  of  General  Pike  and 
his  trip  across  the  country  to  Mexico,  and  ended  with  the 
trading  expeditions  of  J.  W.  Gregg.  § 

*The  Queres,  according  to  Mr.  C.  F.  Lummis,  made  their  homes  among  the  potreros  west 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  were  the  cave-dwellers  of  this  region.  They  are  said  to  have  erected  the 
stone  effigies,  which  were  probably  their  totems,  thus  showing  that  they  were  originally  totemis- 
tic  animal  worshippers  and  not  sun  worshippers  like  the  Pueblos.  One  branch  of  them  built  the 
village  on  the  summit  of  trie  rock  Acoma.  Another  branch  occupied  Santa  Ana,  Santo  Domingo 
San  Felipe  and  Cochiti  on  the  Rio  Grande. 

fSee book  on  Myths  and  Symbols. 
}See  Plate. 

||Acoma,  Laguna,  Zuni  and  the  Moqui  pueblos  were  about  all  the  villages  west  of  the  Rio 
Grande  which  were  inhabited. 

§Frpm  "Pike's  Narrative"  we  learn  that  James  Pursley  fell  in  with  some  Indians  on  the 
Platte  river  and  passed  over  to  the  Grand  river  and  descended,  in  1805,  to  Santa  P'e.  In  1812  an 
expedition  under  McKnight,  Beard  and  Chambers  succeeded  in  reaching  Santa  Fe.  In  1821  Capt. 
Beckwell,  with  four  trusty  companions,  went  to  Santa  Fe.  In  1822  Santa  Fe  trade  began;  Col. 
Msumaduke,  Lieut.-Governor  of  Missouri,  made  one  of  a  party  who  went  with  twenty-five  wheel 
ed  carriages  to  Santa  Fe. 


RUINED  PUEBLO  AT  PECOS. 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  73 

The  second  began  with  the  expedition  sent  out  by  the  gov 
ernment  under  the  charge  of  Colonel  Washington  and  Lieuten 
ant  Simpson,*  to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  Navajo  In 
dians,  but  included  the  expedition  tinder  General  Sitgreaves 
and  Lieutenant  Ives,  who  were  to  report  on  the  navigability  of 
the  Colorado  river,  but  ended  with  the  preliminary  survey  of 
the  Pacific  railroad  under  Major  Whipple. 

The  third  series  began  with  the  organization  of  the  Geolog 
ical  surveys  under  Prof.  F.  V.  Hayden  and  Major  Wheeler,  and 
included  the  explorations!  by  W7.  H  Holmes,  W.  H.  Jackson, 
Oscar  Loevv,  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope  and  Dr.  W.  H.  Hoffman.  This 
exploration  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  the  cliff  dwellings  in 
the  Mancos  canyon,  the  shelter  caves,  the  Montezuma  canyon, 
ancient  pueblos  on  the  McElmo  and  the  remarkable  fortress 
called  Montezuma  Castle. 

The  fourth  series  began  with  the  organization  of  the  Ethno 
logical  bureau, J  and  includes  the  expeditions  sent  out  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  con 
ducted  by  A.  F.  Bandelier,  the  Hemenway  expedition,  and  the 
reports  made  by  F.  H.  Cushing,  J.  W'alter  Fewkes  and  Dr. 
Washington  Mathews. 

The  fifth  series  consisted  of  explorations  of  private  individ 
uals  who  have  visited  the  regions  of  the  Cliff-dwellers,  among 
whom  are  F.  H.  Chapin,  Dr.  Beardsall,  L.  F.  Bickford,  Mr. 
Nordenskjold,  C.  F.  Lummis,  W.  K.  Moorhead  and  Lewis  W. 
Gunckel. 

Each  one  of  these  expeditions  marks  an  era  in  the  history  of 

*This  brought  to  light  the  wonderful  ruins  in  the  valley  of  the  Chaco  and  the  Rio  de  Chelly, 
the  Rock  Inscriptions  at  Zuni,  and  furnished  an  account  of  the  inhabited  pueblos  of  Zuni,  Laguna 
and  the  villages  on  the  Rio  Grande.  The  expedition  under  Captain  Macomb  was  attended  by 
Prof.  J.  S.  Newberry,  They  passed  up  the  Colorado  river,  reached  the  Grand  Canyon,  crossed 
the  plateau  to  the  Moqui  villages,  and  from  there  to  the  Dolores  and  to  the  river  Chama,  but  did 
not  reach  the  ruins  in  the  valley  of  the  Chaco.  Major  Whipple  traversed  the  same  route  which 
had  been  previously  followed  by  J.W.Gregg,  by  way  of  the  Canadian  river  and  the  Shawnee  set 
tlements,  Walnut  Creek  to  Albuquerque  and  from  thence  to  Laguna,  Zuni,  Rio  Pascado,  Rio 
Verde,  Aztec  Pass,  Bill  Williams'  Forks  to  the  Colorado  river.  A  special  report  was  made  by 
Lieutenant  Abert,  which  gave  the  names  of  the  Indian  tribes  and  their  number. 

•|The  results  of  this  exploration  were  very  remarkable  and  should  be  mentioned  ^eriatin--  [i.] 
The  Cliff  Dwellings,  situated  high  up  on  the  sides  of  the  cliffs  of  the  Mancos  canyon,  were 
discovered  by  W.  H.  Jackson.  '1  he  cliff  villages,  such  as  Echo  Cave  on  the  Mancos,  on  the  Rio 
deChelley,  on  the  San  Juan,  were  described  by  W.H. Holmes.  [2.]  The  ruined  pueblos  situated 
on  the  McElmo,  the  Dolores  and  the  Hovenwep,  the  most  of  which  were  of  the  honey-comb  pat 
tern.  [3.]  The  cavate  houses,  with  towers  above  them  and  walled  up  caves,  which  were  used  for 
caches  or  store  rooms  for  grain.  [4.]  The  cliff  fortresses,  called  Montezuma  Castle  and  that  of 
Montezuma  Wells,  discovered  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Hoffman.  [5.]  The  single  houses  situated  at  a  dis 
tance  from  water,  discovered  by  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope.  [6.]  The  ruins  of  pueblos  on  the  Animas, 
described  by  Lieut.  Rogers  Birnie.  [7.]  The  Rock  Inscriptions  which  were  discovered  in  the 
Shelter  caves.  [8.]  The  pottery  and  other  relics,  described  by  E.  A.  Barber  and  W.H. Holmes. 
MThe  revisiting  of  the  ruins  of  Chaco  canyon  by  W.H.Jackson.  [10.]  The  account  of  the  Pueblo 
languages  by  A.  S.  Gatschet,  and  the  classification  of  the  tribes  according  to  languages,  by 


guages 
Oscar  Loe 


f  the  Grand  Canyon  of 


IThis  bureau  was  established  in  1879  after  the  famous  exploration  of  th 
Colorado  by  Maj.  J.  W.  Powell.  The  general  review  of  the  field  explored  has  been  published  by 
Major  Powell  in  various  magazines,  and  in  a  recent  book  called  the  Canyon  of  Colorado,  publish 
ed  by  Ford  &  Vincent. 

IIMr.  L.  F.  Bickford  has  described  the  ruins  on  the  Chaco  and  on  the  Rio  Verde  in  the  Cen 
tury  magazine  for  October  1890  Dr.  Mearns,  surgeon  United  States  army,  described  the  ruins  on 
the  Rio  Verde  and  the  fortress  called  Casa  Blanco  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  October 
1890.  Dr.  J.  F.  Beardsall  describes  the  cliff  dwellings  in  Mancos  canyon  in  the  Bulletin  ol 
Geographial  Society,  republished  in  the  American  Antiquarian.  Messrs.  Moorhead  and  Gunckel 
furnish  descriptions  of  the  shelter  caves  and  cave  villages  in  the  Butlers-wash  and  other  canyons 
in  the  Illustrated  American,  also  in  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 


74  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

the  pueblo  region  since  the  time  of  American  occupation,  which 
is  distinguished  not  so  much  for  the  changes  among  the  pueblos 
themselves,  as  by  the  progress  of  the  country  in  all  that  makes 
for  peace  and  prosperity.  Very  little  was  known  at  the  outset 
about  the  country  except  that  it  was  overrun  by  savages.  It  was 
only  the  regions  beyond  aqd  the  gold  mines  of  California  that  at 
first  interested  the  people,  but  it  was  afterward  found  that  the 
country  was  rich  in  minerals  and  only  needed  enterprise  and  en 
ergy  to  bring  out  its  resources.  There  was  great  danger  in  travel 
ing  and  it  was  not  safe  for  Americans  to  settle  there.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  government  subdued  the  hostiles  and  brought 
the  whole  country  under  the  strong  power  of  law. 

Interest  was  awakened  when  it  was  discovered  that  there  were 
so  many  ruins  hid  away  in  the  valleys  and  the  deep  canyons,  and 
America  began  to  appear  like  an  ancient  country.  A  vast 
amount  of  information  concerning  the  Indian  tribes,  and  especi 
ally  the  Pueblos,  began  to  come  in,  and  the  Indians  instead  of 
proving  to  be  mere  vagrants  hardly  worthy  of  notice  and  only 
to  be  exterminated  as  soon  as  possible,  were  shown  to  have  had 
a  remarkable  system  of  government,  a  wonderful  amount  of  my 
thology  and  folklore,  and  also  elaborate  ceremonial  and  religious 
rites,  which  were  worthy  of  the  closest  attention. 

The  study  of  the  architecture,  languages  and  the  customs  of 
the  Pueblo  Indians,  were  owing  to  the  personal  interest  in  arch 
aeology  which  some  of  the  explorers  felt,  and  the  reports  were 
altogether  voluntary,  but  the  contributions  have  increased  in 
number  and  value  as  time  has  passed  on.  It  is  with  this  point 
in  view  that  we  shall  quote  freely  from  the  reports  of  the  differ 
ent  explorers,  taking  those  which  were  early  and  late  and  arrang 
ing  them  so  as  to  bring  out  the  facts  in  reference  to  particular 
localities. 

The  various  parties  which  explored  the  region  began  at  the 
east  side  and  went  westward  in  the  opposite  direction  from  that 
taken  by  the  Spaniards.  They  reached  first  the  inhabited  pueb 
los  situated  upon  the  Rio  Grande,  and  only  came  upon  the  ruins 
as  they  approached  the  western  borders.  Some  of  the  expedi 
tions  took  the  central  route  and  followed  the  old  trail  which  was 
the  continuation  of  the  Santa  Fe  trail ;  consequently  they  came 
first  to  the  pueblos  which  were  already  known,  such  as  San 
Domingo,  Acoma  and  Zuni.  Still  some  of  the  earlier  explor 
ers  were  able  to  reach  the  ruined  pueblos  and  cliff  dwellings 
which  were  totally  unknown,  and  made  reports  which  were  very 
startling.* 

*Sitgreaves  came  upon  ruins  of  stone  houses  which  he  says  were  evidently  remains  of  a  large 


so  recently  been  described  by  Mr.  Mindeliff. 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  75 

The  descriptions  furnished  by  the  different  exploring  par 
ties  form  a  most  suggestive  series  of  discoveries. 

i.  We  begin  with  the  easternmost  district,  namely,  that  on 
the  Rio  Grande;  a  district  in  which  there  were  many  inhabited 
pueblos.  These  have  furnished  the  chief  data  for  reconstruct 
ing  the  pueblos  farther  west,  which  are  in  ruins,  and  for  decid 
ing  as  to  the  state  of  society  which  formerly  existed  through 
out  the  entire  region.  The  American  explorers  have  done  far 
more  in  this  direction  than  the  Spaniards  did,  notwithstanding 
their  excellent  opportunities,  and  the  information  as  to  the 
inner  systems  and  hidden  rites  which  were  practiced  in  the 
estufas,  and  many  other  things,  is  constantly  being  secured. 

The  first  one  to  describe  the  pueblos  of  this  region  was  Mr. 
Josiah  Gregg,  who  visited  the  pueblos  of  Taos,  Pecos,  Isleta, 
San  Domingo  and  Felipe  and  described  their  peculiarities. 
After  speaking  of  the  villages  and  their  acequias,  or  irrigating 
ditches,  and  the  population  in  the  villages,  and  the  ancient 
mines,  and  ruined  cities  called  La  gran  Quivira,  and  the 
traditions  concerning  them,  he  describes  particular  places. 
He  says: 

Ancient  ruins  are  now  to  be  seen  scattered  in  every  quarter  of  the  terri 
tory.  Of  some,  entire  stone  walls  are  yet  standing,  while  others  are  nearly 
obliterated.  Each  pueblo  is  under  the  control  of  a  cacique,  chosen  from 
among  their  own  sages  and  commissioned  by  the  governor  of  New  Mexico. 
The  cacique,  when  any  public  business  is  transacted,  collects  together  the 
principal  chiefs  of  the  pueblo  in  an  estufa  and  laying  before  them  the  sub 
ject  of  debate,  which  is  generally  settled  by  a  majority. 

The  Pueblo  villages  are  generally  built  with  more  regularity  than  those 
of  the  Mexican,  and  are  constructed  of  the  same  materials  as  were  used  by 
them  in  the  most  primitive  ages.  A  very  curious  feature  in  these  buildings 
is,  that  there  is  most  generally  no  direct  communication  between  the  street 
and  the  lower  rooms,  into  which  they  descend  by  a  trap-door  from  the 
upper  story,  the  latter  being  accessible  by  means  of  ladders.  Even  the 
entrance  to  the  upper  stories  is  frequently  at  the  roof. 

Though  this  was  their  most  usual  style  of  architecture,  there  still  exists 
the  pueblo  of  Taos,  composed  for  the  most  part,  of  but  two  edifices  of  very 
singular  structure  one  on  each  side  of  a  creek,  and  formerly  communicat 
ing  by  a  bridge.  The  base  story  is  a  mass  of  near  four  hundred  feet  long, 
a  hundred  and  fifty  wide,  and  divided  into  numerous  apartments,  upon 
which  other  tiers  of  rooms  are  built,  one  above  another,  drawn  in  by  regu 
lar  grades,  forming  a  pyramidal  pile  fiifty  or  sixty  feet  high,  and  compris 
ing  some  six  or  eight  stories.  The  outer  rooms  only  seem  to  be  used  for 
dwellings,  and  are  lighted  by  little  windows  in  the  sides,  but  are  entered 
through  trap-doors  in  the  roofs.  Most  of  the  inner  apartments  are  em 
ployed  as  granaries  and  store-rooms,  but  a  spacious  hall  in  the  centre  of 
the'mass,  known  as  the  estufa,  is  reserved  for  their  secret  councils.  These 
two  buildings  afford  habitations,  as  is  said,  for  over  six  hundred  souls. 
There  is  likewise  an  edifice  in  the  pueblo  of  Picuries  of  the  same  class,  and 
some  of  those  of  Moqui  are  also  said  to  be  similar. 

Some  of  these  villages  were  built  upon  rocky  eminences  deemed  al 
most  inaccessible;  witness,  for  instance,  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  pueblo  of 
San  Felipe,  which  may  be  seen  towering  upon  the  very  verge  of  a  preci 
pice  several  hundred  feet  high,  whose  base  is  washed  by  the  swift  current 
of  the  Rio  del  Norte.  The  still  existing  pueblo  of  Acoma  also  stands  upon 
an  isolated  mound,  whose  whole  area  is  occupied  by  the  village,  being 
fringed  all  around  by  a  precipitous  cliff, 


76  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Several  gentlemen  have,  visited  this  pueblo  (Taos)  since  the 
time  that  Mr.  Gregg  made  his  expeditions,  and  have  given  de 
scriptions  of  it. 

The  best  description  is  given  by  Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan.  He 
says: 

The  two  structures  stand  about  twenty-hve  rods  apart  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  stream  and  facing  each  other.  That  upon  the  north  side  is  about  250 
feet  long  and  130  feet  deep  and  five  stories  high;  that  on  the  south  side 
is  shorter  and  deeper  and  six  stories  high.  The  present  population  is  about 
400,  divided  between  the  two  houses.  Upon  the  east  side  there  is  an  adobe 
wall  connecting  the  two  buildings  and  protecting  the  open  space.  The 
creek  is  bordered  on  both  sides  by  ample  fields  and  gardens,  which  are  irri 
gated  by  canals  drawing  water  from  the  stream.  The  first  stories  are  built 
up  solid;  those  above  are  built  in  a  terraced  form;  several  stories  are  reach 
ed  by  ladders,  the  rooms  are  entered  by  trap-doors.  The  lower  rooms  are 
used  for  storage  and  granaries,  and  the  upper  for  living  rooms,  the  families 
living  above  owning  and  controlling  the  rooms  below.  Several  rooms  were 
measured,  and  found  to  be  in  feet  14x18,  20x22  and  24x27,  the  height  of  the 
ceiling  from  7  to  8  feet.  In  the  second  story  they  measured  14x23,12x20 
and  15x20.  The  back  rooms  have  usually  one  or  more  round  holes  made 
through  the  walls,  from  six  to  eight  inches  in  diameter,  these  furnish  the 
apartment  with  a  scanty  supply  of  light  and  air.  The  ground  rooms  are 
usually  without  doors  or  windows,  their  only  entrance  being  through  the 
scuttle-holes  which  are  in  the  rooms  comprising  the  story  above.  The 
rooms  located  in  the  front  part  of  the  house  receive  the  light' from  the  doors 
and  windows;  the  back  rooms  have  no  other  light  than  that  which  goes 
through  the  scuttle-holes  or  holes  in  the  wall,  and  they  are  always  gloomy. 

The  representation  of  a  room  in  this  pueblo  is  from  a  sketch  by  Mr.Gal- 
braith,  who  accompanied  Major  Powell's  party.  There  are  fire-places  in 
this'room,  a  modern  invention.  [See  plate.] 

There  is  room  in  each  of  the  two  buildings  to  accommodate  500  people. 
They  were  occupied  in  1864  by  361  Taos  Indians.  From  the  best  informa 
tion  attainable,  the  original  buildings  were  not  erected  all  at  one  time,  but 
added  to  from  time  to  time. 

The  description  which  is  furnished  by  Mr.  M.  L.  Miller,  who 
has  spent  a  summer  at  Taos,  is  especially  worthy  of  notice. 
He  says: 

The  question  of  location  is,  apart  from  another  question,  whether  the 
people  are  to-day  living  in  the  same  buildings  which  the  Spaniards  saw. 
Mr.  Bandelier  positively  states  that,  'with  the  exception  of  Acoma,  there  is 
not  a  single  pueblo  standing  where  it  was  at  the  time  of  Coronado,  or  even 
sixty  years  later,  when  Juan  de  Onate  accomplished  the  peaceful  reduction 
of  the  New  Mexican  Village  Indians.' 

Taos  appears  several  times  prominently  in  opposition  to  the  Spaniards; 
the  last  time  when  the  people  gave  any  trouble  was  at  the  time  of  the  Taos 
rebellion  in  1847.  The  ruins  of  the  church  in  which  the  people  made  their 
last  stand  against  the  whites  are  still  at  Taos.  There  are  also  ruins  near 
Taos  which  indicate  that  there  has  been  a  rebuilding  of  the  pueblos  even 
here. 

Of  the  high  houses  at  Taos  there  are  two,  the  north  house  is  five  stories 
high  and  the  soutl^  but  four  stories.  [See  plates.]  The  two  main  houses 
sheltered  the  entire  tribe  originally,  but  later  small  groups  of  buildings 
have  been  built  within  the  old  wall  and  outside.  Mr.  Lummis  speaks  of 
the  houses  as  pryamids,  and  so  they  appear,  for  they  recede  by  four  or  five 
great  steps  to  the  top.  The  ground  floor  covers,  according  to  Mr.  Davis, 
about  three  or  four  hundred  feet  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  for  each 
building.  In  ancient  times  the  larger  door-ways  of  the  upper  terraces  were 
probably  never  closed  except  by  means  of  blankets  or  rabbit  skin  robes 
hung  over  them  in  cold  weather.  Examples  have  been  seen  where  a  slight 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  77 

pole  of  the  same  kind  as  those  used  in  the  lintels  is  built  into  the  masonry 
of  the  jambs. 

One  of  the  most  curious,  and  at  the  same  time  most  characteristic  fea 
tures  of  an  Indian  pueblo,  is  its  kiva  or  estufa.  At  Taos  they  are  circular 
structures  built  almost  wholly  underground  and  entered  by  a  single  open 
ing  in  the  roof.  There  is  no  other  opening  in  the  room  save  a  small  hole 
at  one  side  to  secure  a  draft  for  the  tire.  The  subterranean  position  of 
these  rooms  is  significant.  Mr.  Gushing  says:  'When  the  ancestors  to  the 
people  were  living  in  the  caves  and  cliffs,  the  women  built  the  houses  for 
the  protection  of  themselves  and  their  children,  but  the  men  built  sleeping 
places  outside  of  the  caves  in  front  of  the  houses.  The  semi-circular  form 
of  the  villages,  to  be  seen  in  several  of  the  ruined  towns,  has  not  continued 
in  any  of  the  existing  pueblos,  but  the  kivasare  still  subterranean. 

'At  Taos  there  are  seven  kivas,  four  on  the  south  side  of  the  creek  and 
three  on  the  north  side.  Some  of  these  are  on  the  outside  of  the  old  town 
wall  and  others  are  within  the  wall.  The  kivas  outside  the  town  wall  have 
the  openings  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  adobe  about  two  feet  high;  one  de 
scends  by  a  ladder,  the  two  poles  of  which  extend  high  up  in  the  air.' 

There  are  many  pueblos  in  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande 
which,  like  Taos,  have  continued  to  be  inhabited.  These  were 
visited  by  the  early  explorers,  General  Simpson,  Major  Whip- 
pie  and  Dr.  Oscar  Loew,  their  situation  noticed,  their  popu 
lation  given,  and  their  peculiarities  described.  Major  Whipple 
secured  a  map  from  an  Indian  on  which  the  pueblos  were  locat 
ed,  and  which  represents  their  mythical  home  or  "  place  of 
emergence." 

The  most  remarkable  pueblo  is  that  of  Pecos,*  situated  on 
the  Pecos  river.  This  was  inhabited  at  the  time  of  the  arrival 
of  the  Spaniards  and  continued  to  be  inhabited  until  the  year 
1840,  though  its  population  decreased  until  only  twelve  were 
left;  these  abandoned  the  site  and  went  to  live  at  Jemez.  The 
best  description  of  Pecos  is  given  by  Mr.  A.  F.  Bandelier;  the 
points  which  he  makes  are  as  follows: 

i.  It  was  admirably  situated,  had  an  extensive  view  over  the  surround 
ing  country.  2.  The  buildings  which  surmounted  the  mesas  served  as  a 
defense,  as  the  walls  formed  an  obstruction  to  a  storming  foe  and  a  perma 
nent  abode  for  the  defenders.  3.  The  inclosure  surrounded  by  the  build 
ings  served  as  a  reservoir  and  held  the  water  precipitated  on  the  mesas, 
which  could  be  conducted  to  the  fields  below  and  made  useful  for  irrigat 
ing.  4,  The  different  parts  of  the  house  were  conformed  to  the  configura 
tion  of  the  rocks,  but  were  all  connected  so  as  to  be  occupied  bv  the  differ 
ent  families  and  clans,  and  serve  as  a  joint  tenement  house.  5.  Ingress  and 
egress  must  have  taken  place,  not  horizontally  "in  and  out."  but  vertically 
"up  and  down."  6.  The  surmise  is  that  the  family  apartments  were  arrang 
ed  not  longitudinal  or  in  transverse  rows  but  vertically;  the  rooms  of  each 
story  communicating  with  those  above  and  below  by  means  of  trap-doors 
and  ladders,-  the  stores  for  each  family  being  in  the  lower  story.  7.  Ac 
cording  to  the  ground  plan  and  sections  it  appears  that  the  east  wing  had 
five  stories,  the  noith  two.  the  west  three,  and  the  south  four.  8.  It  was 
the  largest  aboriginal  structure  of  stone  within  the  United  States, and  would 
even  bear  comparison  with  any  of  the  aboriginal  ruins  of  Mexico  and  Cen 
tral  America.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  wall  of  circumvallation  with  a 
total  length  of  3,220  feet,  and  about  six  feet  and  six  inches  high  on  an  aver 
age.  9.  There  is  but  one  entrance  to  it  visible,  on  the  west  side  at  its  low 
est  level,  where  the  depression  runs  down  the  slope  making  the  bed  of  a 


*Ofthe  two  plates  which  illustrate  the  ruins,  one  has  been  kindly  loaned  by  Mr.  C.  F.  Lum- 
mis,  the  other  is  reproduced  from  Bandolier's  report  to  the  Archaeological  Institute.  These  ruins 
have  been  described  by  Josiah  W.  Gregg  and  Mr.  W.  W.  H.  Davis. 


78  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

rock  streamlet.  Here  the  wall  thickens  to  a  round  tower  built  with  stones, 
leaving  a  gateway  thirteen  feet  wide.  10.  There  is  not  in  the  whole  build 
ing  one  single  evidence  of  any  great  progress  in  mechanics.  Everything 
done  and  built  within  it  can  be  made  with  the  use  of  a  good  fair  eyesight 
only,  and  the  implements  and  arts  of  what  was  formerly  called  the  "stone 
age."  This  does  not  exclude  the  possibility  that  they  had  made  a  certain 
advance  in  the  mechanical  agencies.  They  may  have  had  the  plummet  or 
even  the  square,  but  these  were  not  necessary.  11  The  structure  itself,  in 
its  general  plan  and  mode  of  construction,  reminds  one  of  an  unusually 
large  honey-comb.  12.  Not  a  vestige  of  the  former  cultivation  is  left,  but 
the  platform  with  a  pond  in  the  center  explains  their  mode  of  securing  the 
water  for  irrigation,  and  gives  a  forcible  illustration  of  the  communal  living. 
The  Pecos  Indians  not  only  lived  together,  built  their  houses  together,  but 
raised  their  crops  in  one  common  field,  irrigated  from  one  common  water 
source  which  first  gathered  its  contents  \\ithin  the  inhabited  surface  of  the 
grounds,  led  into  a  reservoir  below  and  so  distributed  to  the  fields.  13.  The 
aboriginal  ruins  in  the  valley  of  the  Pecos  indicates  three  epochs,  succes 
sive  probably  in  time.  Some  of  the  manufactured  ware  seemed  to  have 
been  made  by  people  distinct  from  the  Pecos  tribe,  though  it  is  similar  to  that 
which  is  met  with  in  the  cliff  dwellings  of  Mancos  canyon. 


ORNAMENTAL  WALL  AT  PENASCA  BLANCA. 

II.  The  region  in  which  the  most  interesting  ruins  are  found 
is  that  which  is  situated  beyond  the  water-shed  at  the  head 
waters  of  the  streams  which  flow  into  the  Colorado,  and  so  to 
the  Pacific.  It  may  be  divided  into  four  or  five  separate  dis 
tricts,  each  of  which  is  drained  by  a  different  river,  and  pre 
sents  a  different  class  of  ruins.  Into  this  region  the  American 
explorers  entered  at  an  early  date  and  discovered  the  most  re 
markable  prehistoric  structures  in  the  United  States;  the  most 
of  them  in  ruins,  but  a  few  still  inhabited.  The  inhabited  pueb 
los  had  been  visited  frequently  by  the  Spaniards,  but  the  ruins 
do  not  seem  to  have  attracted  their  attention,  at  least  they  are 
not  described.  In  this  we  see  the  contrast  between  the  two 
classes  of  explorers.  The  Spaniards,  true  to  their  antecedents, 
sought  first  for  gold,  next  for  religious  propogandism.  The 
Americans  sought  for  information  and  for  the  improvement  of 
the  country.  The  result  is  that  we  have  from  the  Americans  a 
most  remarkable  series  of  reports. 


SPANISH  AND  AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS.  79 

It  is  our  purpose  to  give  an  account  of  these  discoveries,  tak 
ing  the  districts  in  the  order  of  their  discovery  as  well  as  that 
of  geographical  location;  giving  credit  to  each  exploring  par 
ty, — making  a  special  mention  of  the  first  discoverers.  We 
shall  confine  ourselves  at  the  present  to  the  ruins  found  on  the 
Chaco  river.  This  region  was  visited  by  Lieutenant  Simpson 
in  1849,  W.  H.  Jackson  in  1874,  and  J.  T.  Bickford  in  1890,  and 
described  by  each  in  turn.  The  following  is  Lieutenant  Simp 
son's  description  of  the  ruins,  beginning  with  those  of  Pintado, 
the  easternmost  of  the  group: 

We  found  them  to  more  than  answer  our  expectations,  forming  one 
structure  and  built  of  tabular  pieces  of  hard,  fine-grained,  compact,  gray 
sand-stone  (a  material  unknown  in  the  presentarchitecture  of  New  Mexico), 
to  which  the  atmosphere  has  imparted  a  reddish  tinge,  the  layers  or  beds 


HUNGO    PAVIE    RESTORED. 

being  not  thicker  than  three  inches,  and  sometimes  as  thin  as  one-fourth  of 
an  inch,  it  discovers  in  the  masonry  a  combination  of  science  and  art  which 
can  only  be  referred  to  a  higher  stage  of  civilization  and  refinement  than  is 
discovered  in  the  works  of  Mexicans  or  Pueblos  of  the  present  day.  Indeed, 
so  beautifully  diminutive  and  true  are  the  details  of  the  structure  as  to  cause 
it,  at  a  little  distance,  to  have  all  the  appearance  of  a  magnificent  piece  of 
mosaic  work.  [See  r>.  78.] 

On  the  ground  floor,  exclusive  of  the  out-buildings,  are  fifty-four  apart 
ments,  some  of  them  as  small  as  five  feet  square,  and  the  largest  about  12x6 
feet.  These  rooms  communicate  with  each  other  by  very  small  doors,  some 
of  them  as  contracted  as  two  and  a  half  by  two  and  a  half  feet;  and  in  the 
case  of  the  inner  suite  the  doors  communicating  with  the  interior  court  are 
as  small  as  two  and  a  half  by  three  feet.  The  principal  rooms,  or  the  most 
in  use,  on  account  of  their  having  larger  doors  and  windows,  were  those  of 
the  second  story.  The  system  of  flooring  seems  to  have  been  large  trans 
verse,  unhewn  beams  six  inches  in  diameter,  laid  transversely  from  wall  to 
wall, and  then  a  number  of  smaller  ones,  about  three  inches  in  diameter, 
laid  longitudinally  upon  them.  On  these  was  placed  brush  which  was  cov 
ered  with  a  layer  ol  mud  and  mortar.  The  beams  show  no  signs  of  the  saw 
or  axe.  On  the  contrary,  they  appear  co  have  been  hacked  off  by  some 
very  imperfect  instrument.  At  different  points  about  the  premises  were 
three  circular  apartments,  sunk  in  the  ground,  called  estufas,  where  the 
people  held  their  religious  and  political  meetings. 


80  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Thirteen  miles  from  our  last  camp  we  came  to  another  old  ruin  called 
Pueblo  Weje-gi. 

Further  down  the  canyon  we  came  to  another  pueblo  in  ruins,  called 
Hungo  Pavie.  These  ruins  show  the  same  nicety  in  the  details  of  their 
masonry  as  those  already  described.  The  ground  plan  shows  an  extent  of 
exterior  development  of  1,872  feet,  and  a  number  of  rooms  upon  the  ground 
floor  equal  to  72  feet.  The  structure  shows  but  one  circular  estufa,  and  this 
is  placed  in  the  body  of  the  north  portion  of  the  building,  midway  from 
either  extremity.  This  estufa  differs  from  others,  having  a  number  of  in 
terior  counterforts.  The  main  walls  of  ihe  building  are,  at  the  base,  two 
and  three-fourths  feet  through,  and  at  this  time  show  a  height  of  about 
thirty  feet.  The  ends  of  the  floor  beams,  still  visible,  show  that  there  was, 
originally,  at  least,  a  vertical  series  of  four  floors.  The  floor  beams,  which 
are  round,  in  transverse  section,  and  eleven  inches  in  diameter,  as  well  as  the 
windows,  which  are  as  small  as  12x13  inches,  have  been  arranged  horizon 
tally,  with  great  precision  and  regularity. 

Continuing  down  the  canyon  one  and  three  quarter  miles  further,  we 
came  to  another  structure  in  ruins,  the  name  of  which,  accord  ng  to  the 
guide,  is  Pueblo  Chettro  Ketile.  or,  as  he  interprets  it,  the  "Rain  Pueblo." 
These  ruins  have  an  extent  of  exterior  circuit,  inclusive  of  the  court,  of 
about  1,300  feet.  The  material  of  which  the  structure  has  been  made,  as 
also  the  style  of  the  masonry,  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  ruined  pueblos 
already  described, — the  stone  a  sandstone,  the  beams  pine  and  cedar,  and 
the  number  of  stories  at  present  discoverable  is  four,  there  having  been 
originally  a  series  of  windows  (four  and  a  half  by  three  and  a  half  feet)  in 
the  first  story,  which  are  now  walled  up.  The  number  of  rooms  on  the  first 
floor,  most  all  of  which  were  distinguishable,  must  have  been  as  many  as 
124.  The  circular  estufas,  of  which  there  are  six,  have  a  greater  depth  ihan 
any  we  have  seen,  and  differ  from  them  also  in  exhibiting  more  stories,  one 
of  them  showing  certainly  two  and  possibly  three,  the  lowest  one  appearing 
to  be  almost  covered  up  with  debris.  In  the  northwest  coiner  of  this  ruin  is 
found  a  room  in  almost  a  perfect  state  of  preservation. 

Two  or  three  hundred  yards  down  the  canyon  we  met  another  old  pueb 
lo  in  ruins,  called  Pueble  Bonito.  The  circuit  of  its  walls  is  about  1,300 
feet.  Its  present  elevation  shows  that  it  had  at  least  four  stories  of  apart 
ments.  The  number  of  estufas  is  four,  the  largest  being  sixty  feet  in  diam 
eter,  showing  two  stories  in  height,  and  having  a  present  depth  of  twelve  feet. 
All  these  estufas  are,  as  in  the  case  of  the  others  I  have  seen,  cylindrical  in 
shape  and  nicely  walled  up  with  thin  tabular  stone.  Among  the  ruins  are 
several  rooms  in  a  very  good  state  of  preservation,  one  of  them  being  wall 
ed  up  with  alternate  beds  of  large  and  small  stones,  the  regularity  of  the 
combination  producing  a  very  pleasing  effect.  The  ceiling  of  this  room  is 
also  more  tasteful  than  any  we  have  seen,  the  transverse  beams  being 
smaller  and  more  numeious,  and  the  longitudinal  pieces  which  rest  upon 
them  only  about  an  inch  in  diameter  and  beautifully  regular. 

Two  miles  further  down  the  canyon,  but  on  its  left  or  south  bank,  we 
came  to  another  pueblo  in  ruins,  called  bv  the  guide  Pueblo  de  Penasca 
Blanca,  the  circuit  of  which,  approximates,  1,700  feet.  This  is  the  largest 
pueblo,  in  plan,  we  have  seen,  and  differs  from  others  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  stones  composing  its  walls.  The  walls  of  the  other  pueblos  were  all 
of  one  uniform  character  in  the  several  beds  composing  it;  but  in  this  th<  re 
is  a  regular  alternation  of  large  and  small  stones,  the  effect  of  which  is  both 
unique  and  beautiful.  The  largest  stones,  which  are  about  one  foot  in 
length  and  one-half  foot  in  thickness,  forms  but  a  single  bed,  and  then, 
alternating  with  these,  are  three  or  four  beds  of  very  small  stones,  each 
about  an  inch  in  thickness.  The  general  plan  of  the  structure  also  differs 
from  the  others  in  approximating  the  form  of  the  circle.  The  number  of 
rooms  at  present  discoverable  on  the  first  floor  is  112,  and  the  existing  walls 
show  that  there  have  been  at  least  three  stories  of  apartments.  The  num 
ber  of  circular  estufas  we  counted  was' seven. 


MAP  SHOWING  DIFFERENT  PUEBLO  DISTRICTS. 
The  following-  map  shows  the  districts   represented    in    the  territory 
\isited  by  the  American  explorers.     They  are  as  follows: 

I.  The  first  includes  the  district  on  the  Rio  Grande. 

II.  The    second  is   situated  upon   the  Chaco,  where  are  the  remarkable  ruins  represented  in 
the  cuts,  and  which  are  described  in    this  book   by   Lieutenant  Simpson,  W.  H.  Jackson,  J.  T. 
Bickford  and  others. 

III.  The  third  is  in  the  valley  of  San  Juan,  the  McEln^o,   the   Hovenweep,   the  Mancos,  the 
Montezuma  and  other  streams,  and  is  characterized  by  the  ruins  of  the  cliff  dwellings. 

IV.  The  fourth  is  situated  upon  the  Rio  de  Chelly,  where  are  the  remains  of  ancient  pueblos, 


cliff  fortresses  and  cliff  villages  whicr.  resemble  those  on  the  Mancos  and  San  Juan.  It  includes 
the  district  drained  by  the  Rio  Verde  on  which  are  the  remajkable  series  of  cavate  houses,  irrigat 
ing  ditches,  ancient  boulder  cites,  stone  pueblos  and  the  two  cliff  dwellings  called  "Montezuma 
Castle''  and  "Montezuma  Wells."  It  includes  also  the  cavate  houses  and  pueblos  found  in  the 
ancient  cones  about  the  San  Francisco  Mountains. 

V.  The  fifth  district  is  situated  upon  the  Gila  River  and  its  tributaries,  and  includes  the  ancient 
ruins  of  Casa  Grande  and  the  scattered  villages  and  irrigating  ditches  which  have    been   described 
by  Mr.  F.  H.  Gushing  and  others  of  the  Hemingway  axpedition. 

VI.  The  sixth  district  is  situated  upon  the  southern  borders  of  the  pueblo    territory  and  em 
braces  the  cavate  houses  among  the  potreros  west  of  the  Rio  Grande,  also  the  ancient  ruins  of  the 
deserted  villages  and  ancient  Spanish  settlements  along  the  northern  borders  of  Texas. 

VII.  There  is  one  other  district  not  represented  on   the  map    which    is   situated  in   Sonora, 
Mexico,  and  contains  the  ancient  ruins  of  the  Casas  Grandes  described  by  Mr.  Bartlett  and  others. 


INDIAN  MAP  OF  THE  RIO  GRANDE. 

The  following  map  is  the  one  which  was  secured  by  Major  Whipple 
from  an  Indian.  It  represents  the  inhabited  pueblos  on  the  Rio  Grande, 
which  have  been  described  by  Mr.  Bandelier  as  follows  : 

•'Acoma  is  a  regular  three-storied  village  since  every  one  of  its  long 
buildings  contains  three  floors,  of  which  only  the  upper  two  are  inhabited; 
but  Isleta  has  lost  the  pueblo  character  completely.  As  to  the  plan  of  the 
villages  it  varies  according  to  topography  and  surroundings.  San  Ilde- 
fonso  forms  a  hollow  qradnlateral;  Jemez,  Santa  Clara  and  San  Felipe  are 
each  a  double  quadrangle  with  two  squares;  Santa  Domingo,  San  Juan, 


Santa  Ana  and  Acoma,  consist  of  several  parallel  rows  of  houses,  and  have 
from  one  to  three  streets.  Zuni  is  one  gigantic  building  very  irregularly 
disposed,  traversed  by  alleys  called  streets,  and  interspersed  with  several 
interior  squares.  Taos  has  two  tall  houses  facing  each  other,  one  on  each 
side  of  a  little  stream  and  communicating  across  it  by  means  of  a  wooden 
foot-bridge.  The  same  is  the  plan  of  the  houses  of  Pecos.  The  material 
of  which  the  houses  are  constructed  varies  Acoma  is  of  stone  and  rubble; 
Isleta,  San  Domingo  and  Cochiti  are  of  adobe.  Very  of  en  one  of  the 
same  pueblo  will  display  both  kinds  of  material.  There  are  still  occasional 
traces  of  the  ancient  custom  by  which  the  women  were  required  to  rear  and 
plaster  the  walls,  while  the  men  were  to  attend  to  the  wood-work,  the  cut 
ting  of  the  beams  and  poles." 


ORTELIUS'    MAP    OF    TH'E    NEW    WORLD, 


MERCATOR'S   MAP  OF   AMERICA. 


MAP    OF   THE    PUEBLO    REGION. 


MAP  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS'  TERRITORY. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS. 

The  discovery  of  the  Cliff-dwellings  was  a  startling  event.  It 
occurred  in  1874,  in  connection  with  the  work  of  Hayden's  Geo 
logical  Survey,  An  account  of  it  was  published  in  the  Annual 
Report  of  1875-6,  and  excited  at  the  time  very  general  interest. 
No  archaeological  discovery  has  ever  awakened  more  attention 
and  excited  more  curiosity  than  this.  Many  ruined  dwellings 
had,  indeed,  been  discovered  by  the  various  parties  that  had 
traversed  the  Great  Plateau,  and  descriptions  of  them  had  been 
published,  but  they  were  ordinary  pueblos,  with  which  the  public 
had  become  somewhat  familiar,  while  these  presented  a  style 
of  aboriginal  dwellings  which  was  not  known  to  exist  elsewhere. 
The  first  consisted  of  a  large  number  of  apartments  and  consti 
tuted  a  village,  while  these  were  solitary  and  isolated  dwellings, 
suitable  only  for  the  home  of  a  single  family.  The  pueblos  were 
situated  in  the  valleys  of  the  streams  or  upon  the  mesas,  and  ac 
cess  to  them  was  comparatively  easy,  but  cliff-dwellings  were  in 
the  sides  of  the  cliffs,  and  at  such  marvelous  heights  as  to  be 
almost  inaccessible.  The  pueblos  were  generally  in  plain  sight, 
and  along  the  ordinary  familiar  routes,  while  these  were  in  a  re 
mote  district,  amid  wild  and  lonely  canons,  and  so  hidden  as  to 
escape  common  observation.  The  pueblos  were  inhabited,  and 
the  people  gave  the  discoverers  a  welcome,  but  the  cliff-dwellings 
were  lonely  and  uninhabited.  No  one  knew  the  history  of  those 
who  had  dwelt  in  them,  or  could  tell  the  fate  of  those  who  had 
left  them. 

It  is  not  then  strange  that  great  interest  was  awakened, 
and  much  speculation  and  startling  theories  were  advanced  con 
cerning  them.  We  may  say,  however,  that  the  interest  has  not 
ceased,  nor  has  the  mystery  which  enveloped  this  subject  entirely 
disappeared.  Though  scientific  students  have  entered  into  the 
midst  of  them,  and  studied  the  details  of  their  structure,  and  so 
accumulated  facts,  that  our  knowledge  has  become  more  ac 
curate  and  speculation  less  fanciful  ;  yet  the  history  of  the  people 
is  wanting,  and  there  is  no  reliable  tradition  concerning  them. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  furnish  a  history  of  the  Cliff-dwellers, 
nor  to  advance  any  theory  concerning  their  age  or  final  destiny, 
but  we  shall  take  up  the  narrative  which  was  given  by  the 
discoverers,  and  examine  the  facts  brought  out  by  them,  and 
endeavor,  if  possible,  to  define  the  character  of  the  culture,  and 
describe  the  life  of  the  people. 


82 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


I.  Let  us  consider  the  geographical  locality  in  which  the 
cliff-dwellings  were  situated.  On  this  we  shall  find  much  aid 
from  the  study  of  the  map  as  well  as  the  narrative. 

We  notice  that  the  pueblos  and  a  certain  class  of  cave-dwell 
ings  are  scattered  all  over  the  region  embraced  in  the  bounds  of 
the  four  great  states  of  New  Mexico,  Colorado,  Arizona  and 
Utah ;  but  there  is  a  district  lying  close  about  the  meeting  place 
of  the  four  states  in  which  not  only  the  pre-historic  ruins  of  the 
plateaus  and  the  valleys  are  found,  but  also  many  cliff-dwellings 
built  into  the  dizzy  recesses  of  the  canon  walls,  imposing  in  their 
position  and  structure.  Probably  there  is  no  other  district  in 
this  once  widely-inhabited  region  richer  in  these  high  cliff- 


FIG.   1.      THE  FIRST  HIGH  CLIFF-HOUSE  DISCOVERED. 

dwellings  than  this  Great  Plateau,  30  miles  long  and  15  wide, 
called  the  "  Mesa  Verde." 

This  great  timbered'  plateau  rises  in  rough,  forbidding  cliffs 
from  1,500  or  2,000  feet  above  the  valley  of  the  stream  which 
passes  through  it,  making  a  series  of  deep  canons  which  are  dis 
tinguished  for  their  remarkable  scenery,  isolation,  and  wildness. 
In  the  walls  of  these  arid  canons  and  in  the  midst  of  the  high 
mountains  the  Cliff-men  built  some  of  their  most  elaborate  and 
imposing  fortresses,  but  wrung  a  meagre  subsistence  from  the 
valleys  below,  fighting,  meanwhile,  for  even  this  scanty  foot 
hold  in  the  wilderness  against  the  attack  of  a  lurking,  but  a 
constantly-increasing  savage  foe. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  following  descriptions  that  this  is  one 
of  the  most  singular  regions  of  the  entire  country.  It  forms  an 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS.  83 

isolated  area,  which  was  filled  with  an  extensive  population  in 
pre-historic  times,  and  was  undoubtedly  connected  with  the  other 
areas  to  the  south-east  and  south-west.  It  was,  apparently,  a 
most  secure  retreat  from  the  attacks  of  the  wild  tribes  which 
were  constantly  hovering  about  the  edges  of  the  Great  Plateau 
region,  and  were  frequently  besieging  the  Pueblos  in  their  homes. 
It  was,  however,  a  mountainous  region,  apparently  destitute  of 
resources  for  subsistence,  and  might  be  regarded  as  a  poor  place 
for  permanent  occupation.  The  question  arises :  "  What  kind 
of  a  life  did  the  Cliff-dwellers  lead  in  this  region  ?  how  did  they 
secure  a  subsistence  for  themselves  and  their  families  ?  "  On 
this  point  there  have  been  various  theories,  for  some  have  main 
tained  that  they  were  wild  hunters,  others  that  they  were  agri 
culturists.  We  maintain,  however,  that  they  were  mountaineers, 
and  in  proof  would  call  attention  to  the  following  extracts  :  Mr. 
W.  H.  Holmes  says : 

,  The  Rio  San  Juan  drains  a  great  basin,  covering  over  20,000  square 
miles,  as  well  as  several  great  mountain  masses  bordering  it.  The  tribu 
taries  to  it  head  in  the  southern  face  of  the  Sierra  Abajo,  which  is  one  of 
the  highest  peaks. 

The  view  from  its  summit  is  one  of  more  than  ordinary  interest ;  to  the 
east  the  view  is  interrupted  only  by  the  La  Plata  and  San  Juan  mountains, 
100  miles  away  ;  in  the  south  are  the  Sierra  Carisso  ;  in  the  west  are  the 
Henry  Mountains  ;  to  the  north,  the  Sierra  La  Sal,  all  in  plain  view,  yet  out 
lining  a  circle,  and  including  an  area  of  20,000  square  miles.  To  the  south 
lies  the  broad  valley  of  the  Rio  San  Juan,  the  delicate  thread  which  lines 
its  bank  being  barely  visible  through  the  notches  cut  by  the  deep  side 
canons.  Beneath  us,  on  the  west,  is  the  Rio  Colorado,  though  its  course  is 
scarcely  traceable  through  the  labyrinth  of  cliffs  and  canons.  Beyond  the 
San  Juan,  to  the  south-west,  the  wonderful  forms  of  Monumental  Valley  can 
be  seen.  Beyond  this  the  outlines  of  a  broad  table-land,  which  extends 
toward  the  Rio  de  Chelley  and  south-west  toward  the  Moqui  country.  The 
drainage  of  this  valley  on  the  north  connects  it  with  the  Rio  Dolores,  the 
divide  between  them  being  somewhat  narrow,  and  the  head  waters  inter 
locking  through  the  Great  Plateau,  separate  these  streams  and  the  different 
branches  of  the  San  Juan.  The  table-lands  intervene  between  the  streams, 
on  the  west,  such  as  Montezuma,  the  Hovenweep,  the  McElmo  and  the 
Epsom  Creek,  obtaining  a  very  nearly  uniform  height  of  500  feet,  running 
up  to  nearly  i.ooo  feet  as  we  approach  the  Dolores  divide.  The  San 
Maguel  Mountains  lie  in  the  extreme  north  east  corner,  and  constitute  the 
divide  between  the  waters  of  the  Animas  and  Dolores  on  the  south,  and 
Rio  San  Maguel  on  the  north.  This  divide  reaches  an  altitude  of  11,500 
feet.  A  conical  peak,  called  Lone  Cone,  is  a  very  prominent  landmark. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson  describes  the  same  region  in  the  following 
words : 

The  "  Mesa  Verde  "  extends  north  and  south  about  20  miles,  and  east  and 
west  about  40  miles.  It  is  of  a  grayish-yellow  cretaceous  sandstone,  with  a 
very  nearly  horizontal  bedding,  so  that  the  escarpment  is  about  equal  on 
all  sides,  ranging  from  600  to  700  feet  in  height.  The  side  canyons  pene 
trate  the  mesa  and  ramify  it  in  every  direction,  always  presenting  a  per 
pendicular  face,  so  that  'it  is  only  at  very  rare  intervals  the  top  can  be 
reached.  But  once  up  there  we  find  excellent  grazing  and  thick  groves  of 
cedar  and  pinon  pine.  From  the  bottom  of  the  canon  up,  the  slopes  of 
the  escarpments  are  thickly  covered  with  groves  of  cedar,  gnarled  and 
dwarfed.  Below,  the  cottonwood  and  willow  grow  luxuriantly  beside  the 

*  The  map  shows  ruins  and  the  streams  upon  which  they  are  located,  but  faintly  repre 
sents  the  mountainous  character  of  the  country. 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


streams,  while  dense  growths  of  a  reedy  grass  tower  above  our  heads  as  we 
ride  through  it.  Throughout  its  entire  length  the  canon  presents  an 
average  width  of  about  200  yards. 

Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin,  the  great  mountain  climber,  says : 

It  is  in  that  section  of  Colorado  which  is  embraced  by  the  "  Mesa  Verde  " 
that  the  grandest,  as  well  as  the  most  picturesquely  situated  ruins  have 
been  discovered.  This  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  this  land  of  canons 
and  mesas  is  surrounded  on  the  north  and  east  by  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
mountain  chains  in  the  world,  renders  the  country  the  most  fascinating 
field  for  the  explorer. 


FIG.  2.     BLACK  TOWER  ON   THE  MANCOS 

Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson  says  : 

All  that  portion  of  the  country  lying  between  the  "  Mesa  Verde  "  and  the 
Sierra  Abajo,  covers  an  aggregate  of  some  2,500  square  miles.  Their 
labynnthian  canons  head  close  to  the  Dolores  on  the  north,  and  ramify  the 
plateau  in  every  direction  with  deep  and  desolate  gorges  and  wide  and 
barren  valleys.  There  is  not  a  living  stream  throughout  this  whole  region 
Between  the  Montezumas  and  the  Hovenweep  is  a  high  plateau,  running 
north  and  south  from  the  San  Juan  to  the  Dolores.  Upon  this  we  found 
the  remains  of  many  circular  towers,  these  generally  occupying  slight 
eminences. 

This  mesa,  or  plateau,  averages  about  500  feet  in  height  above  the  sur 
rounding  country,  but  does  not  contain  a  spring  or  a  drop  of  water,  except 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS.  85 

such  as  may  remain  in  holes  in  the  rocks  after  a  shower.  As  cultivation 
was  out  of  the  question,  it  ,is  very  likelv  that  these  towers  were  look-outs, 
or  places  of  refuge  for  the  shepherds,  who  brought  their  sheep  here  to 
graze. 

As  a  great  portion  of  this  region  is  a  bare  bed  of  rocks,  with  the  soil  in 
the  lowlands,  nearly  impervious  to  moisture,  the  winter's  showers  soon 
gather  together  their  waters  in  great  floods  in  the  main  channels,  and  form 
the  deep  "washes"  so  characteristic  of  the  country.  In  some  valleys, 
where  the  drainage  is  considerable,  these  "  washes  "  attain  a  depth  of  from 
thirty  to  forty  feet,  and  are  impassable  for  many  miles. 

Mr.  Jackson  further  says  in  reference  tc  this  region  : 

The  bottoms  are  from  three  to  five  miles  in  width,  and  bordering  the 
stream,  covered  with  dense  growths  of  cottonwood  and  willows.  The  broad 
and  fertile  alluvial  lands,  well  covered  with  grass,  and  the  low  sage  bush 
benches  bordering  them,  will,  undoubtedly,  prove  a  rich  agricultural  pos 
session  at  no  distant  day.* 

Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes  also  says : 

The  district  examined  by  our  party  covers  an  area  of  nearly  6,000  square 
miles,  chiefly  in  Colorado,  but  which  include  narrow  belts  in  the  adjacent 
territories  of  New  Mexico,  Utah  and  Arizona.  It  lies  wholly  on  the  Pacific 
slope,  and  belongs  almost  entirely  to  the  drainage  system  of  the  Rio  San 

Juan,  a  tributary  of  the  Colorado  of  the  \^est In  the  greater 

part  of  this  region  there  is  little  moisture  apart  from  these  streams,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  vegetation  is  very  sparse,  and  the  general  aspect  of  the 
country  is  that  of  a  semi-desert.  Yet  there  is  bountiful  evidence  that  at  one 
time  it'supported  a  numerous  population  ;  there  is  scarcely  a  square  mile 
in  the  6,000  examined  that  does  not  furnish  evidence  of  previous  occupa 
tion  by  a  race  totally  distinct  from  the  nomadic  savages  who  hold  it  now, 

and,  in  many  ways  superior  to  them I  observe  the  fact  that 

the  great  bulk  of  remains  are  on.  or  in,  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  run 
ning  streams,  or  by  springs  that  furnish  a  plentiful  supply  of  water  during 

the  greater  part  of  the  year I  also  notice  that  the  country  is 

by  no  means  an  entire  desert.  All  along  the  stream-courses  there  are 
grass-covered  meadows  and  broad  belts  of  alluvial  bottom,  affording,  if 
properly  utilized,  a  considerable  area  of  rich  tillable  land. 

Such  is  the  description  of  the  region  in  which  the  Cliff-dwell 
ings,  as  such,  were  found,  a  description  which  shows  that  the 
region  was  well  chosen  as  the  retreat  of  a  people  who  seem  to 
have  been  fugitives  from  the  attacks  of  savage  tribes,  and  who 
made  these  mountain  fastnesses  their  abode  at  some  period  in 
the  distant  past,  the  date  of  which  is  now  unknown. 

We  are  impressed  by  the  thought  that  the  Cliff-dwellers 
were  hardy  mountaineers,  but,  like  other  mountaineers,  were 
accustomed  to  draw  their  subsistence  from  the  valleys.  Doubt 
less,  there  was  a  strong  influence  in  the  scenery  and  surround 
ings,  which  made  it  easy  for  them  to  have  followed  this  double 
kind  of  life,  and  make  their  homes  so  high  m  the  sides  of  the 
cliffs,  and  yet  carry  on  their  toils  at  so  great  a  distance. 

They  are  not,  however,  the  only  people  who  have  had  their 
fields  at  a  distance  from  their  homes,  for  it  is  well  known  that 
the  Pueblos  are,  even  to  this  day.  accustomed  co  form  camps  at  a 
distance  from  their  villages,  and  spend  the  summer  in  cultivating 
the  fields,  and  carrying  back  their  produce  to  the  villages  when 
gathered. 

*  See  Hayden's  Report  for  1876  ;  page  412. 


86  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

One  would  suppose  from  the  character  of  these  mountain  fast 
nesses  that  the  people  would  be  the  last  to  be  driven  out,  yet  as 
we  read  the  descriptions  of  the  pueblos  on  the  Canon  de  Chaco. 
and  especially  the  description  of  the  cliff-dwellings  in  the  "  Mesa 
Verde,"  we  find  them  all  abandoned,  the  entire  region  left  deso 
late,  with  only  a  few  wandering  tribes  occupying  the  river  val 
leys,  placing  their  rude  tents  amid  the  ruins  of  the  elaborate 
stone  houses  and  towers  and  temples  of  the  preceding  people.* 

II.  We  turn  next  to  the  discovery  of  the  Cliff-dwellings,  or 
the  so-called  "  High  Houses,"  and  the  different  classes  of  struc 
tures  which  were  associated  with  them.  We  find  that  while  the 
high  houses  were  the  most  interesting,  yet  there  were  many  ruined 
towers  situated  in  the  valley,  and  clusters  of  ruined  pueblos  in 
various  directions,  all  of  which  need  to  be  studied  in  order  to 
make  up  our  minds  as  to  the  culture  of  the  Cliff-dwellers.  Let 
us  then,  take  these  in  their  order  of  discovery.  The  following 
is  a  description  given  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson  : 

In  the  extreme  south-west  corner  of  Colorado  are  groups  of  old  ruined 
houses  and  towns,  displaying  a  civilization  and  intelligence  far  beyond  that 
of  the  present  inhabitants.  Commencing  our  observation  in  the  park-like 
valley  of  the  Mancos,  between  the  Mesa  and  the  mountains,  we  find  that 
the  low  benches  that  border  the  stream  upon  either  side  bear  faint  vestiges 
of  having,  at  some  far-away  time,  been  covered  with  dwellings,  grouped  in 
communities,  apparently,  but  now  so  indistinct  as  to  present  to  the  eye 
little  more  than  unintelligible  mounds.  By  a  little  careful  investigation, 
however,  the  foundations  of  great  square  blocks,  of  single  buildings  and  of 
circular  inclosures  can  be  made  out ;  the  latter,  generally,  with  a  depressed 
center,  showing  an  excavation  for  some  purpose. 

Entering  the  canon  at  its  upper  end  we  strike  into  the  old  Indian  trail, 
which  comes  over  from  the  head  of  the  Rio  Dolores,  and  passing  down  this 
canon  a  short  distance,  turns  off  to  the  left,  and  goes  over  to  the  La  Plata. 

Grouped  along  in  clusters  and  singly  were  indications  of  former  habita 
tions,  very  nearly  obliterated,  and  consisting  mostly,  in  the  first  four  or  five 
miles,  of  the  same  mound-like  forms  noticed  above,  and  accompanied 
always  by  the  scattered,  broken  pottery. 

As  we  progressed  down  the  canon  the  same  general  characteristics  held 
good,  the  great  majority  of  the  ruins  consisting  of  heaps  of  debris,  a  central 
mass  considerably  higher  and  more  massive  than  the  surrounding  lines  of 
subdivided  squares. 

We  now  commenced  to  note  another  peculiar  feature.  Upon  our  right, 
the  long  slopes  of  protruding  strata  and  debris  formed  promontories,  ex 
tending  out  into  the  canon.  Upon  these,  and  not  more  than  50  feet  above 
the  stream,  we  found  frequent  indications  of  their  having  been  occupied 
by  some  sort  of  works,  the  foundations  of  which,  in  every  case,  were  circu 
lar,  with  a  deep  depression  in  the  center,  and  generally  occurring  in  pairs, 

*  The  home  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  may  be  divided  into  four  distinct  localities,  in  each  of 
which  the  ruins  were  discovered  at  different  times  and  by  different  explorers.  The  division  is 
as  follows  : 

ist.  On  the  rivers  which  flow  from  the  south  to  the  north,  including  De  Chaco,  Amarillo, 
De  Largo,  apparently  form  the  home  of  a  peopie  who  dwelt  in  pueblos  of  the  regular  ter 
raced  class,  descriptions  of  which  have  been  given  by  Gen.  Simpson,  Newberry  and  others, 
from  1830  to  1851. 

2nd.  The  rivers  which  flow  from  the  north  to  the  south,  including  the  La  Plata,  Ani- 
mas  and  San  Juan,  seem  to  have  been  the  abode  of  a  people  who  dwelt  mainly  in  caves  or 
cavate  houses,  descriptions  of  which  have  been  given  by  W  H.  Holmes  in  his  report,  while 
in  connection  with  the  Hayden  survey,  in  1875  and  1878. 

3rd.  The  region  which  is  drained  by  the  Mancos,  Navajo  Canon,  and  which  is  called 
the  "  Mesa  Verde,"  is  the  locality  where  high  cliff-dwellings  are  the  most  numerous,  these 
have  been  described  by  W.  H.  Jackson,  W.  H.  Holmes,  and  F.  H.  Chapin,  in  1881  ;  Dr. 
Beardsall,  in  1887  ;  and  Baron  Nordenksjold,  in  1892,  some  of  which  we  have  designated  High 
Cliff  Dwellings. 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS.  87 

two  side  by  side,  ranging  from  10  to  20  feet  in  diameter,  There  was  no 
masonry  of  any  kind  visible,  but,  thickly  strewn  all  about,  any  quantity  of 
broken  pottery.  Above  were  indications  of  habitations  in  the  face  of  the 
eliff,  but  not  marked  enough  to  warrant  further  search.  At  those  places 
where  the  trail  ran  high  up,  near  the  more  precipitous  portion  of  the  bluff, 
we  found  remnants  of  stone  walls,  inclosing  spaces  of  from  five  to  twelve 
feet  in  length  in  the  cave-like  crevices,  running  along  the  seams.  Nothing 
of  any  greater  importance  was  found  up  to  the  time  we  made  camp  at 
nightfall. 

Our  camp  for  the  night  was  among  the  stunted  pinons  and  cedars  imme 
diately  at  the  foot  of  the  escarpment  of  the  "  mesa,"  its  steep  slopes  and 
perpendicular  faces  rising  nearly  1,000  feet  above  us. 

Now  comes  the  discovery  of  the  first  "  High  House:"  See.  fig  i. 

Just  as  the  sun  was  sinking  behind  the  western  walls  of  the  canon,  one  of 
the  party  descried,  far  up  the  cliff,  what  appeared  to  be  a  house  with  a 
square  wall  and  apertures,  indicating  two  stories,  but  so  far  up  that  only 
the  very  sharpest  eyes  could  define  anything  satisfactorily.  We  had  no 
field-glass  with  the  party,  and  to  this  fact  is  probably  due  the  reason  we  had 
not  seen  others  during  the  day  in  this  same  line,  for  there  is  no  doubt  that 
ruins  exist  throughout  the  entire  length  of  the  canon,  far  above  and  out  of 
the  way  of  ordinary  observation. 

The  discovery  of  this  one,  so  far  above  anything  heretofore  seen,  inspired 
us  immediately  with  the  ambition  to  scale  the  height  and  explore  it, 
although  night  was  drawing  on  fast,  and  darkness  would  probably  overtake 
us  among  the  precipices,  with  a  chance  of  being  detained  there  till  night. 
All  hands  started  up,  but  only  two  persevered  to  the  end.  The  first  500 
feet  of  ascent  were  over  a  long,  steep  slope  of  debris  overgrown  with  cedar  ; 
then  came  alternate  perpendiculars  and  slopes.  Immediately  below  the 
house  was  a  nearly  perpendicular  ascent  of  100  feet  that  puzzled  us  for  a 
while,  and  which  we  were  only  able  to  surmount  by  finding  cracks  and 
crevices  into  which  fingers  and  toes  could  be  inserted.  From  the  little 
ledges  occasionally  found,  and  by  stepping  on  each  other's  shoulders,  and 
grasping  tufts  of  yucca,  one  would  draw  himself  up  to  another  shelf,  and 
then,  by  letting  down  a  stick  of  cedar,  or  a  hand,  would  assist  the  other. 
Soon  we  reached  a  slope,  smooth  and  steep,  in  which  there  had  been  cut  a 
series  of  undulating  hummocks,  by  which  it  was  easy  to  ascend,  and  with 
out  them,  almost  an  impossibility. 

The  house  stood  upon  a  narrow  ledge,  which  formed  the  floor,  and  was 
overhung  by  the  rocks  of  the  cliff.  The  depth  of  this  ledge  was  about  10 
by  20  feet  in  length,  and  the  vertical  space  between  the  ledge  and  over 
hanging  rock  some  15  feet.  The  house  occupied  the  left-hand  half  as  we 
faced  it  ;  the  rest  being  reserved  as  a  sort  of  esplanade,  a  small  portion  of 
the  wall  'remaining,  which  cut  it  off  from  the  narrow  ledge  running  beyond. 
The  edges  of  the  ledge  upon  which  the  house  stood  were  rounded  off,  so 
that  the  outside  wall  was  built  upon  an  incline  of  about  45  degrees.  The 
house  itself,  perched  up  in  a  little  crevice  like  a  swallow's  nest,  consisted  of 
two  stories,  the  total  height  being  about  12  feet,  leaving  a  space  of  two  or 
three  feet  between  the  top  of  the  walls  and  the  overhanging  rock.* 
ground  plan  showed  a  front  room,  about  6x9  feet  in  dimensions,  back  of  it 
two  smaller  rooms,  the  face  of  the  rock  forming  their  back  walls.  They 
were  each  about  five  or  seven  feet  square,  and  in  the  lower  front  room  are 

4th.  The  region  which  lies  to  the  westward  of  the  Mesa  Verde,  and  which  is  drained  by 
the  Montezuma  and  the  McElmo,  the  Hovenweep  on  the  north,  the  Rio  de  Chelly  on  the 
south,  is  distinguished  for  the  large  number  of  remarkable  ruins,  some  of  which  have  been 
described  by  Gen.  Simpson,  Dr.  W.  H.  Hoftman,  \\  .  H.  Jackson  and  W.  H.  Holmes,  and 
which  constitute  a  series  which  is  as  varied  in  its  character  as  those  to  the  east  of  the  Mesa 
Verde,  but  in  which  there  are  some  remarkable  specimens  of  High  Cliff  Dwellings,  or 

Verde  River,  contains  a  number  of  cliff- 


calezumaWe  i 

hi  Dr  J  W   Fewkes,  in  1896,  at  a  place  called  Red  Rocks.    [See  American  Anthropologist, 
August,  1896  ;  page  265.] 

*  This  house  is  described  on  pages  126  and  127. 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

two  apertures,  one  serving  as  a  door  and  opening  out  upon  the  esplanade, 
about  20x30  inches  in  size,  the  lower  sill  24  inches  from  the  floor,  and  the 
other  a  small  outlook,  about  12  inches  square,  up  near  the  ceiling,  and  look 
ing  over  the  canon  beneath.  In  the  upper  story  a  window,  corresponding 
in  size,  shape  and  position  to  the  door  below,  commands  an  extended  view 
down  the  canon.  Directly  opposite  this  window  is  a  similar  one,  opening 
into  a  large  reservoir,  or  cistern,  the  upper  walls  of  which  come  nearly  to 
the  top  of  the  window.  The  entire  construction  of  this  little  human  eyrie 
displays  wonderful  perseverance,  ingenuity  and  some  taste.  Perpendicu 
lars  were  well  regarded,  and  the  angles  carefully  squared.  The  stones  of 
the  outer  rooms,  or  front,  were  all  squared  and  smoothly  faced,  but  were 
not  laid  in  regular  courses,  as  they  are  not  uniform  in  size,  ranging  from 
fifteen  inches  in  length  and  eight  inches  in  thickness  down  to  very  small 
ones. 

About  the  corners  and  the  windows  considerable'care  and  judgment  were 
evident  in  the  over-lapping  of  the  joints,  so  that  all  was  held  firmly 
together.  The  only  sign  of  weakness  is  in  the  bulging  outward  of  the  front 
wall,  produced  by  the  giving  way,  or  removal,  of  the  floor  beams.  The  back 
portion  is  built  of  rough  stone,  firmly  cemented  together. 

Most  peculiar,  however,  is  the  dressing  of  the  walls  of  the  upper  and 
lower  front  rooms,  both  being  plastered  with  a  thin  layer  of  firm  adobe 
cement,  of  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  colored  a  deep 
maroon  red.  with  a  dingy  white  band,  eight  inches  in  breadth,  running 
around  the  floor,  sides  and  ceiling.  In  some  places  it  has  peeled  away, 
exposing  a  smoothly-dressed  surface  of  rock. 

Ruins  of  half  a  dozen  lesser  houses  were  found  near  by,  but  all  in  such 
exposed  situations  as  to  be  quite  dilapidated.  Some  had  been  crushed  by 
the  overhanging  wall  falling  upon  them,  and  others  had  lost  their  foothold 
and  tumbled  down  the  precipice.  One  little  house  in  particular,  at  the  ex 
tremity  of  this  ledge,  about  fifty  rods  below  the  one  described  above,  was 
especially  unique  in  the  daring  of  its  site,  filling  the  mind  with  amazement 
at  the  temerity  of  the  builders,  and  the  extremity  to  which  they  must  have 
been  pushed. 

Mounting  our  own  animals  we  pushed  on  down  the  canon,  which  now 
opened  out  into  quite  a  valley,  side  canons  opening  in  from  either  hand, 
adding  much  to  the  space.  Every  quarter  of  a  mile,  at  the  most,  we  came 
upon  evidences  of  former  habitations,  similar  to  those  already  described. 
Two  or  three  miles  below  the  house  in  Fig.  i,  we  discovered  a  wall  stand 
ing  in  the  thick  brush  upon  the  opposite  side  of  the  river. 

The  walls  discovered  were  a  portion  of  an  old  tower.  See  fig. 
I,  and  2,  in  plate. 

In  the  midst  of  a  group  of  more  dimly-marked  ruins  or  foundations,  extend 
ing  some  distance  in  each  direction  from  it.  As  seen  in  the  figure  referred 
to,  the  tower  consists  of  two  lines  of  walls,  the  space  between  them  divided 
into  apartments,  with  a  single  circular  room  in  the  center.  The  outside 
diameter  of  all  is  25  feet,'  that  of  the  inner  circle  12  feet,  and  as  the  walls 
were  respectively  18  and  12  inches  in  thickness,  left  a  space  of  four  feet  for 
the  small  rooms.  This  outer  circle  was  evidently  divided  into  six  equal 
apartments,  but  only  the  divisions  marked  in  the  diagram  could  be  distin 
guished. 

Half  a  mile  below,  in  the  vertical  face  of  the  rock,  and  at  a  height  of 
from  50  to  100  feet  from  the  trail,  were  a  number  of  little,  nest-like 
habitations.  *  Communications  with  the  outside  world  was  from  above  to 
a  small  window-like  door,  not  shown  in  the  sketch.  Two  small  apertures 
furnish  a  look-out  over  the  valley. 

Near  by,  upon  alow  ledge,  and  readily  accessible  from  below,  is  a  string 
of  five  or  six  houses,  evidently  communicating, —  mere  kennels  compared 
with  some  others  —  made  by  walling  up  the  deep  cave-like  crevices  in  the 
sandstone.  The  same  hands  built  them  that  lived  in  the  better  houses  ; 
the  masonry  being  very  similar,  especially  the  inside  chinking,  which  was 
perfect,  and  gave  the  walls  a  very  neat  appearance.  2 

1  Fig.  5  plate  illustrates  one  of  them  and  their  general  character. 

2  Mr.  E.  A.  Barber  says  that  there  was  a  tower  just  below  the  first  "  High  House.     (See 
Am.  Naturalist,  Aug.,  1878.) 


FIG.  3.     SOLITARY  HOUSE  ON  McELMO  CANON. 


90  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

about  100  square  yards,  while  adjoining  it,  on  the  mesa,  is  group  after  group 
on  the  same  plan, —  a  great  central  tower  and  smaller  surrounding  build 
ings.  They  cover  the  whole  breadth  and  length  of  the  land.  Half  a  dozen 
miles  down,  and  we  came  upon  several  little  nest-like  dwellings,  very  sim 
ilar  to  those  in  Figs.  5  and  7,  but  only  about  40  or  50  feet  above  the  valley. 
Two  miles  farther,  and  we  came  upon  the  tower  shown  in  Plate  Fig.  9, 
upon  the  summit  of  a  great  square  block  of  sandstone,  some  forty  feet  in 
height,  detached  from  the  bluff  back  of  it.  The  building,  upon  its  summit, 
is  square,  with  apertures  like  windows  upon  two  faces,  looking  east  and 
north,  and  very  much  ruined,  but  still  standing  in  some  places  about  15  feet 
above  the  rock  on  which  it  is  built.  At  the  base  of  the  rock  is  a  wall  run 
ning  about  it,  a  small  portion  only  remaining,  the  rest  thrown  down  and 
covered  with  debris  from  the  house  above. 

While  passing  the  mouth  of  a  wide  side  canon,  coming  in  from  the  right, 
a  tall,  black-looking  tower  caught  our  eyes,  perched  upon  the  very  brink  of 
the  mesa,  overlooking  the  valley. — (See  fig.  2,  on  p.  84.) 

A  huge  block  of  sandstone  has  rolled  down  from  the  escarpment  of  the 
mesa  above,  lodging  upon  the  very  brink  of  a  bench  midway  between  top 
and  bottom,  and  upon  this  the  tower  is  built,  so  that  from  below  both 
appear  as  one.  They  are  of  the  same  diameter,  about  10  feet,  and  some  18 
feet  in  height,  equally  divided  between  rock  and  tower.  In  construction, 
it  is  similar  to  those  already  described,  of  single  wall.  It  was  evidently  an 
outpost,  or  watch-tower,  guarding  the  approach  to  a  large  settlement  upon 
or  beyond  the  mesa  lying  above  it.* 

The  solitary  house  discovered  by  Mr.  Jackson,  (see  fig.  3.)  on 
the  Canon  De  Chelley  should  be  mentioned  in  this  connection. 
He  says : 

Its  construction  is  very  similar  to  that  of  the  house  shown  in  fig.  i,  but  it 
is  over-hung  by  a  less  height  of  the  impending  bluff.  It  was  reached  by  a 
series  of  steps  cut  into  the  rock. 

The  house  20  feet  in  height,  consists  of  two  stories  built  against  the 
sloping  wall  of  the  bluff.  The  lower  story  is  10x18  feet  square,  divided 
into  two  rooms,  with  a  door  communicating  between  the  two,  and  a  large 
door  opening  outward.  The  upper  floor  appears  to  have  been  in  one  room 
with  one  large  window  facing  outward.  Extensions  erected  upon  either 
side  and  also  a  kind  of  structure  in  front,  resembling  a  balcony  covering 
the  lower  door-way.  About  twenty  rods  away  at  the  foot  of  the  bluff,  there 
is  a  deep  natural  reservoir  or  basin,  about  thirty  feet  in  diameter  and  the 
same  in  depth,  that  seems  to  have  retained  a  perpetual  supply  of  water. 

The  most  remarkable  specimen  of  a  high- cliff  house  is  the 
one  discovered  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  and  described  as  follows : 

The  group  given  in  this  plate  is  of  a  very  interesting  and  remarkable 
character.  It  was  first  observed  from  the  trail  far  below,  and  fully  one- 
fourth  of  a  mile  away.  From  this  point,  by  the  aid  of  a  field-glass,  the 
sketch  given  in  the  plate  was  made.  So  cleverly  are  the  houses  hidden 
away  in  the  dark  recesses,  and  so  very  like  the  surrounding  cliffs  in  color, 
that  I  had  almost  completed  the  sketch  of  the  upper  houses  before  the 
lower,  or  "  sixteen-windowed  "  one  was  detected,  (see  fig.  4.) 

They  are,  at  least,  eight  hundred  feet  above  the  river.  The  lower  five 
hundred  feet  is  of  rough  cliff-broken  slope,  the  remainder,  of  massive  bed 
ded  sandstone,  full  of  wind-worn  niches,  crevices  and  caves.  Within  one 
hundred  feet  of  the  cliff  top,  set  deep  in  a  great  niche,  with  arched,  over 
hanging  roof,  is  the  upper  house,  its  front  wall  built  along  the  very  brink  of 
a  sheer  precipice.  Thirty  feet  below  in  a  similar,  but  less  remarkable 
niche,  is  the  larger  house,  with  its  long  line  of  apertures,  which  I  afterward 
found  to  be  openings  intended  rather  for  the  insertion  of  beams  than  for 
windows. 

*  See  U.  S.  Geological  and  Geographical  Survey  of  Colorado  and  Adjacent  Vicinity,  1874. 
Quotations  from  "Ancient  Ruins  in  South-Western  Colorado,"  by  W.  H.  Jackson. 


FIG.  4.     SIXTEEN  WINDOWED  HIGH   HOUSE— w.  H.  HOLMES 


This  High  House  reminds  us  of  th-  Cliff-Dwellings  discovered  by  Nordenskjold  in  1892, 
though  the  arrangement  of  the  buildings  on  two  separate  ledges  differs  from  any  found  else 
where  Nordenskjold  has  described  certain  houses  as  furnished  with  balconies  projecting 
in  front  of  the  house.  He  has  spoken  of  others  as  having  port-holes  or  openings  in  the 
walls  through  which  arrows  were  shot,  and  quotes  from  Castaneda  a  description  of  port 
holes  built  diagonally  through  the  walls  of  the  pueblos.  The  narrow  passage  which  Holmes 
described  as  designed  for  entrance  into  the  "  Estufa,"  Nordenskjold  thinks  was  designed 
for  ventilation  and  speaks  of  this  as  characteristic  of  the  Estufas  of  the  cliff-dwellers. 


SECTION  AND  GROUND  PLAN  OF  THE  HIGH  HOUSES. 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS.  91 

The  lower  house  was  easily  accessible,  and  proved  to  be  of  a  very  inter 
esting  character.  It  occupies  the  entire  floor  of  a  niche,  which  is  about 
sixty  feet  long  and  fifteen  feet  in  depth  at  the  deepest  part.  The  front 
walls  are  built  flush  with  the  precipice,  and  the  partition  walls  extend  back 
to  the  irregular  wall  of  rock  behind.  Portions  of  the  wall  at  the  left,  view 
ing  the  house  from  the  front,  are  greatly  reduced  ;  but  the  main  wall,  that 
part  which  contains  the  window-like  openings,  is  still  thirteen  or  fourteen 
feet  high.  The  arrangement  of  the  apartments  is  quite  complicated  and 
curious,  and  will  be  more  readily  understood  by  reference  to  the  ground 
plan  —  (Fig.  i.)  The  precipice-line,  or  front  edge  of  the  niche  floor,  extends 
from  a  to  b.  From  this  the  broken  cliffs  and  slopes  reach  down  to  the  trail 
and  river,  as  shown  in  the  accompanying  profile —  (Fig.  3.)  The  line  bt  c,  d 
represents  the  deepest  part  of  the  recess,  against  which  the  walls  are  built. 
To  the  right  of  b  the  shelf  ceases,  and  the  vertical  face  ot  rock  is  unbroken. 
At  the  left,  beyond  a,  the  edge  is  not  so  abrupt,  and  the  cliffs  below  are  so 
broken  that  one  can  ascend  with  ease.  Above,  the  roof  comes  forward  and 
curves  upward,  as  seen  in  the  profile. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  this  structure  is  the  round-room,  which 
occurs  about  the  middle  of  the  ruin,  and  inside  of  a  large  rectangular  apart- 


FIG.  5     RUINED  TOWER  ON  THE  MANGOS. 

ment.  The  occurrence  of  this  circular  chamber  in  this  place  is  highly  sig 
nificant,  and  tends  greatly  to  confirm  my  previously-stated  opinion,  that 
the  circle  had  a  high  significance  with  these  people.  Their  superstitions 
seem  to  have  been  so  exacting  in  this  matter  that  even  when  driven  to  the 
extremity  of  building  and  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  these  desolate  cliffs,  an 
inclosure  of  this  form  could  not  be  dispensed  with  ;  a  circular  estufa  had 
to  be  construcfed  at  whatever  cost  of  labor  and  inconvenience. 

Its  walls  are  not  high  and  not  entirely  regular,  and  the  inside  is  curiously 
fashioned  with  offsets  and  box-like  projections.  It  is  plastered  smoothly, 
and  bears  considerable  evidence  of  having  been  used,  although  I  observed 
no  traces  of  fire.  The  entrance  to  this  chamber  is  rather  extraordinary, 
and  further  attests  the  peculiar  importance  attached  to  it  by  the  builders, 
and  their  evident  desire  to  secure  it  from  all  possibility  of  intrusion.  A 
walled  and  covered  passage-way,//,  of  solid  masonry,  ten  feet  of  which  is 
still  intact,  leads  from  an  outer  chamber,  through  the  small  intervening 
apartmsnts,  into  the  circular  one.  It  is  possible  that  this  originally  ex 
tended  to  the  outer  wall,  and  was  entered  from  the  outside.  If  so,  the  per 
son  desiring  to  visit  the  estufa  would  have  to  enter  an  aperture  about 
twenty-two  inches  high  by  thirty  wide,  and  crawl,  in  the  most  abject  man 
ner  possible,  through  a  tube-like  passage-way  nearly  twenty  feet  in  length. 

My  first  impression  was  that  this  peculiarly-constructed  door-way  was  a 
precaution  against  enemies,  and  that  it  was,  probably,  the  only  means  of 


92  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

entrance  to  the  interior  of  the  house,  but  I  am  now  inclined  to  think  this 
hardly  probable,  and  conclude  that  it  was  rather  designed  to  render  a 
sacred  chamber  as  free  as  possible  from  profane  intrusion.  The  apart 
ments,  /,  k,  m,  n,  do  not  require  any  especial  description,  as  they  are  quite 
plain  and  almost  empty.  The  partition  walls  have  never  been  built  up  to 
the  ceiling  of  the  niche,  and  the  inmates,  in  passing  from  one  apartment  to 
another,  have  climbed  over.  The  row  of  apertures  indicated  in  the  main 
front  wall  are  about  five  feet  from  the  floor,  and  were  doubtless  intended 
for  the  insertion  of  beams,  although  there  is  no  evidence  that  a  second  floor 
has  at  any  time  existed. 

In  that  part  of  the  ruin  about  the  covered  passage-way  the  walls  are 
complicated,  and  the  plan  can  hardly  be  made  out,  while  the  curved  wall 
enclosing  the  apartment  is  totatally  overthrown The  rock- 
face  between  this  ruin  and  the  one  above  is  smooth  and  vertical,  but  by 
passing  along  the  ledge  a  few  yards  to  the  left  a  sloping  place  was  found, 
up  which  a  stairway  of  small  niches  had  been  cut ;  by  means  of  these  an 
active  person,  unencumbered,  can  ascend  with  safety.  On  reaching  the 
top.  one  finds  himself  in  the  very  door-way  of  the  upper  house  — (a,  Fig.  2) 
—  without  standing-room  outside  of  the  wall,  and  one  can  imagine  that  an 
enemy  would  stand  but  little  chance  of  reaching  and  entering  such  a  for 
tress,  if  defended  even  by  women  and  children  alone.  The  position  of  this 
ruin  is  one  of  unparalleled  security,  both  from  enemies  and  from  the  ele 
ments.  The  almost  vertical  cliff  descends  abruptly  from  the  front  wall,  and 
the  immense  arched  roof  of  solid  stone  projects  forward  fifteen  or  twenty 
feet  beyond  the  house.  (See  Section,  Fig.  3.)  At  the  right  the  ledge  ceases, 
and  at  the  left  stops  short  against  a  massive  vertical  wall.  The  niche 
stairway  affords  the  only  means  of  approach. 

The  house  occupies  the  entire  floor  of  the  niche,  which  is  about  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  feet  long  by  ten  in  depth  at  the  deepest  part.  The  front 
wall  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  doorway  is  quite  low,  portions  having 
doubtless  fallen  off.  The  higher  wall,  f  g,  is  about  thirty  feet  long  and 
from  ten  to  twelve  feet  high,  while  a  very' low  rude  wall  extends  along  the 
more  inaccessible  part  of  the  ledge,  and  terminates  at  the  extreme  right  in 
a  small  enclosure,  as  seen  in  the  plan  at  c. 

In  the  first  apartment  entered  there  were  evidences  of  fire,  the  walls  and 
ceiling  being  blackened  with  smoke.  In  the  second,  a  member  of  the  party, 
by  digging  in  the  rubbish,  obtained  a  quantity  of  beans,  and  in  the  third,  a 
number  of  grains  of  corn,  hence  the  names  given.  There  are  two  small 
windows  in  the  front  wall,  and  the  doorways  communicate  between  rooms 
separated  by  high  partitions. 

Figure  3  is  given  for  the  purpose  of  making  clear  the  geologic  conditions 
that  give  shape  to  the  cliffs,  as  well  as  to  show  the  relations  of  these  houses 
to  cliffs.  The  hard  and  massive  beds  of  rock  resist  the  erosive  agents,  the 
soft  and  friable  beds  yield,  hence  the  irregularity.  The  overhanging  cliffs, 
the  niches,  the  benches,  q,  is  a  section  of  the  lower  house,  b,  of  the  upper. 

It  has  heretofore  been  supposed  that  the  occupants  of  these  houses  ob 
tained  water  either  from  the  river  below  or  from  springs  on  the  mesa 
ahove  ;  but  the  immense  labor  of  carrying  water  up  these  cliffs,  as  well  as 
the  impossibility  of  securing  a  supply  in  case  of  a  siege,  made  me  suspect 
the  existence  of  springs  in  the  cliffs  themselves.  In  three  or  four  cases 
these  springs  have  been  found,  and  it  is  evident  that  with  a  climate  a  very 
little  more  moist  than  the  present,  a  plentiful  supply  could  be  expected'. 
Running  water  was  found  within  a  few  yards  of  the  group  of  houses  just 
described,  and  Mr.  Brandegee  observed  water  dripping  down  the  cliffs  near 
a  group  of  small  houses  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  canon. 

Mr.  Holmes  also  discovered  various  towers  which  were  asso 
ciated  with  ruined  dwellings.  He  says  : 

The  ruin,  of  which  a  plan  is  given,  occurs  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Mancos,  about  eight  miles  above  the  foot  of  the  canon.  It  is  one  of  the 

*  See  Fig.  on  page  i-i,  Hayden's  Report,  1878,  page  391. 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS. 


CLIFF    WITH    HIGH    HOUSES. 


best  preserved  specimens  of  the  ruined 
towers  and  seems  to  have  been  built 
with  much  skill.  It  is  nine  feet  in 
diameter  on  the  inside,  and  about  six 
teen  feet  high.  There  are  three  rect 
angular  apartments  attached.  In  the 
side  of  the  tower  facing  the  river  is  a 
window  about  eight  feet  from  the 
ground.  This  may  have  served  as  a 
doorway  between  the  tower  and  one  of 
the  adjoining  apartments.  The  advan 
tage  of  such  an  arrangement  in  de 
fensive  works  is  clearlv  apparent,  and 
evinces  not  a  little  intelligence  and 
forethought  on  the  part  of  the  builders. 
Being  built  m  connection  with  dwell 
ings  and  places  of  resort,  they  could, 
in  case  of  alarm,  be  reached  with  ease 
from  within,  and  be  altogether  secure 
from  without.* 

III.  This  leads  us  to  consider 
the  number  and  location  of  the 
towers.  We  have  seen  that  they 
are  very  numerous  in  the  valley 
of  the  San  Juan,  and  especially 
so  on  the  Mancos;  some  are  on 
the  higher  promontories;  others 
quite  low,  within  twenty  or  thirty 
feet  of  the  riverbed.  Mr.  Holmes 
visited  and  measured  seven  along 
the  lower  fifteen  miles  of  the 
course  of  this  stream.  In  di 
mensions  they  range  from  ten  to 
sixteen  feet  in  diameter,  and 
from  five  to  fifteen  feet  in  height, 
while  the  walls  are  from  one  to 
two  feet  in  thickness.  They  are 
in  nearly  every  case  connected 
with  other  .structures,  mostly 
regular  rectangular  in  form.  At 
the  mouth  of  the  Mancos,  how 
ever,  a  double  circle  occurs,  the 
smaller  one  having  been  the 
tower  proper.  It  is  fifteen  feet 
in  diameter,  and  from  eight  to 
ten  feet  in  height.  The  larger 
circular  wall  is  forty  feet  in 
diameter,  and  from  two  to  four 
feet  high,  and  is  built  tangent  to 
the  smaller.  This  ruin  is  at  the 
point  where  the  Mancos  reaches 
the  alluvial  bottom,  bordering 
the  Rio  San  Juan,  and  about 


*  See  Holmes'  Report  on  the  Ancient  Ruins  for  1875-76,  page  391. 


94 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


one  mile  above  its  junction  with  the  river.  On  the  opposite 
or  south  side  of  the  river  are  traces  of  somewhat  extensive 
ruins,  but  so  indistinct  that  the  character  of  the  original 
structures  cannot  be  made  out.  "  No  single  mile  of  the  Mancos 
is  without  such  remains." 

This  distribution  of  the  towers  along  the  Mancos  and  of 
the  ruins  near  them  is  very  suggestive.  It  appears  that  there 
were  different  periods  in  which  the  Cliff-Dwellers  continued  to 
occupy  this  border  land  of  the  Pueblo  territory,  and  through 
out  them  all,  they  were  constantly  subject  to  attacks  from  an 
ever  increasing  foe  which  came  down  from  the  north.  There 
is,  to  be  sure,  no  record  of  these  attacks,  or  of  the  changes 
which  they  produced,  except  such  as  archaeology  gives;  yet, 
judging  from  the  different  structures  which  are  now  in  ruins, 
we  conclude  that  the  occupation  had  lasted  for  many  centuries, 
and  that  through  them  all  the  same  danger  continued. 


««*•* 


VIEW   OF    CLIFFS    ON    THE    MANCOS.* 


The  problem  before  the  archaeologist  is  to  take  these  differ 
ent  ruins  which  are  scattered  along  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan 
and  the  Mancos  and  to  decide  which  was  the  earliest,  and 
which  the  later,  and  so  make  out  a  history  from  the  ruins. 
Towers  are  connected  with  all  the  ruins  of  cliff  dwellings— 
with  the  walled-up  caved  houses,  with  the  ruined  pueblos,  with 
the  clusters  of  caches  and  little  houses,  and  with  the  pretentious 
cliff  villages,  which  are  called  cliff  palaces,  as  well  as  with  the 
high  houses. 

There  are  places  where  there  are  no  signs  of  either  cave- 
towns  or  ruined  pueblos  or  cliff  palaces,  but  the  houses  are 
scattered  around  in  the  niches  of  the  rocks  without  any  sign  uf 
their  being  connected.  Here  there  were  look-out  towers,  which 

•This  cut  shows  the  shape  of  the  cliffs  in  which  the  high  houses  are  situated.     The  dark 
lines  near  the  top  show  the  height  of  the  houses  above  the  valley 


Ke-uUt  °A    lhC  Prece.dinS  Pa,Ke  illustrates  the  steepness  of  the  cliff  in  which  the  high  houses 
i  built  and  the  situation  of  the  houses  in  the  niches  described  on  pages  82,  87  and  126. 


HIGH  HOUSES  AND  RUINED  TOWERS.  95 

were  built  on  the  summit  of  isolated  rocks,  almost  inaccessible, 
and  the  wonder  is  to  what  use  they  were  put.  If  the  people 
were  driven  to  such  straits  as  to  build  towers  on  the  isolated 
rocks,  what  would  become  of  their  stores  and  their  families 
in  case  of  attack  ?  It  may  be  that  they  were  look-outs, 
designed  to  watch  the  approach  of  an  enemy  and  to  give  warn 
ing  to  the  people,  or  they  may  have  been  used  as  lodging 
places  for  the  men.  There  is  a  mystery  about  these  isolated 
towers  which  were  connected  with  the  scattered  houses,  and 
yet  they  furnish  a  hint  as  to  the  pertinacity  with  which  the 
people  clung  to  their  old  habitat.  There  were  houses  which 
were  probably  used  as  summer  resorts  or  stations  where  the 
people  from  the  pueblos  dwelt  during  the  summer,  while  they 

carried  on  their 
agricultural  pur 
suits  in  the  valley. 
The  two  -  story 
house  in  the  Canon 
de  Chelly  was  of 
this  character. 
These  towers 
which  we  are  de 
scribing,  are  gener 
ally  associated 
with  houses  of  the 
cave  kind,  which 
were  very  numer 
ous,  as  can  be  seen 
from  the  following 

description  by  Mr. 

S^lsi^    Jackson: 


We    found    them 
numerous    enough    to 

SQUARE    TOWER    ON   THE    MANGOS.  Satisfy     OUT      most 

earnest  desire,  al 
though  not  of  the  importance  of  the  greater  ones  of  the  San  Juan  and 
De  Chelly.  All  were  of  the  small  cave  kind,  mostly  mere  "cubby  holes," 
but  so  smoke-blackened  inside  and  showing  other  marks  of  use,  as  to  con 
vince  us  they  had  been  long  occupied,  but  not  during  any  comparatively 
recent  period.  In  the  generality  of  cases,  they  were  on  small. benches,  or 
in  shallow  caves  situated  near  the  bed  of  the  stream,  but  the  further  up  we 
went,  the  higher  they  were  built.  In  one  instance  a  bluff,  several  hundred 
feet  in  height,  contained  half  a  dozen  small  houses,  sandwiched  in  its 
various  stratas,  the  highest  being  up  150  feet;  each  of  but  one  room,  and 
one  of  them  a  perfect  specimen  of  adobe-plastered  masonry,  hardly  a  crack 
appearing  upon  its  smoothly  stuccoed  surface.  A  short  distance  up  from 
the  entrance  to  the  canyon,  a  square  tower  has  been  built  upon  a  command 
ing  point  of  the  mesa,  and  in  a  position,  so  far  as  any  means  at  our  com 
mand  are  concerned,  perfectly  inaccessible. 

Upon  the  opposite  side  of  the  main  Epsom  Creek  Valley  and  on  top  of 
the  high  bluffs  of  sandstone,  we  found  cave  houses,  divided  into  four  or  five 
apartments  of  just  the  size  and  number  that  would  be  required  for  an  ordi 
nary  family  of  eight  or  ten  persons.  On  the  top  of  the  bluff,  we  found  the 
remains  of  a  very  old  circular  tower,  forty  feet  in  diameter,  the  stones  all 


96  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

crumbled,  rounded  and  moss  covered.  Near-by  were  the  remains  of  two 
other  cave  habitations.  A  few  miles  further  up  the  Epsom  Valley,  we  came 
upon  an  important  group  that  was  evidently  the  centre  of  the  sui rounding' 
population,  an  aboriginal  town.  Upon  the  edge  of  the  ravine  was  a  round 
tower,  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter,  and  seventy-five  feet  below  was  a  square 
building.  On  the  opposite  bank,  were  two  small  round  towers,  each  fifteen 
feet  in  diameter,  with  two  oblong  structures,  twelve  by  fifteen  feet,  and 
another  square  building. 

Such  is  the  account  of  the  high  houses  and  towers  which 
were  discovered  and  described  by  the  early  explorers.  We 
learn  from  it,  many  things  about  the  former  condition  of  the 
mysterious  people,  who  are  called  the  Cliff-Dwellers.  It 
appears  that  they  were  a  peaceable  sedentary  people,  who  had 
been  dependent  upon  agriculture  for  their  subsistence,  and 
who  perhaps  were  allied  to  the  Pueblos  who  dwelt  far  to  the 
south;  but  had  long  made  their  homes  in  the  rich  valleys 
of  the  streams  which  rlowed  through  the  mountains.  They 
dweljt  here,  and  here  they  built  their  houses,  first  in  the 
valleys,  and  deposited  their  crops  in  the  caches  which  were 
furnished  by  the  cavities  in  the  rocks  near-by.  From  these, 
they  were  driven  by  the  wild  tribes,  such  as  the  Utes,  possibly 
the  Navajos,  who  came  down  upon  them  in  increasing  num 
bers.  They  then  fled  from  their  homes  and  built  anew  on  the 
mesas,  leaving  their  former  habitations  to  go  to  ruin.  These 
houses  became  unsafe,  so  they  were  compelled,  as  a  last  resort, 
to  break  up  their  villages,  which  had  been  concentrated  in 
the  valleys,  and  scatter  their  families;  building  homes  for 
the  women  and  children  high  up  in  the  sides  of  the  rocks, 
where  the  enemy  could  not  reach  them.  The  men  remained  in 
the  valleys,  and  continued  to  carry  on  their  accustomed  em 
ployments.  They  continued  in  this  way  through  many  seasons, 
but  the  repeated  attacks  of  their  enemies  compelled  the  men 
to  build  towers  in  the  most  inaccessible  places  and  there  station 
bands  which  would  constantly  act  as  watchmen.  These  towers 
were  probably  reached  by  rope  ladders,  and  may  have  served 
as  sleeping  places  for  the  men.  There  came  a  time,  however, 
when  the  constant  presence  of  their  enemies  prevented  them 
from  tilling  the  fields  or  gathering  subsistence  from  any  source, 
and  they  were  compelled  to  leave  the  region  altogether  and 
make  their  homes  elsewhere. 


ROYAL    GORGE    AND    TOLT  EC    PASS. 
By  courtesy  of  Denver  &  Rio  Grande  Railway. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  CLIFF  PALACE  AND  ITS  SURROUNDINGS. 

The  descriptions  given  of  the  su-called  "High  Houses  and 
Round  Towers,"  which  were  discovered,  in  1874,  by  Holmes 
and  Jackson,  in  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan,  lead  us  to  consider 
the  cliff  dwellings  and  ruined  pueblos  discovered  since  that 
time.  It  would  seem  that  notwithstanding  the  great  interest 
which  was  taken  in  these  accounts,  very  few  persons  visited 
the  region,  or;  if  they  did,  they  published  no  record,  except 
Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan,  who  made  a  hasty  trip  in  1877,  and  wrote 
a  description  of  the  ruins  on  the  Animas  and  the  M^Elmo. 
The  chief  work  which  has  been  done  since  that  time  has 
been  accomplished  by  private  parties. 

Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin  visited  the  region  in  1889  and  1890,  and 
took  photographs  of  several  of  the  cliff  houses  including  the 
Cliff  Palace.  He  published  the  account  of  his  expedition  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Appalachian  Club  and  in  the  AMERICAN 
ANTIQUARIAN,  afterward  published  in  a  beautiful  book* 

He  was  followed  by  Dr.  J.  P.  Birdsall,  who  spent  a  few 
weeks  in  the  same  region,  and  wrote  a  description  of  his  ex 
plorations  for  the  Geographical  Society  of  New  York,  a  part 
of  which  was  published  in  the  American  Antiquarian. 

The  person  who  accomplished  the  most  in  the  way  of  ex 
ploring,  measuring  and  describing  the  cliff  dwellings  of  this 
region  was  Nordenskjold,  of  Stockholm,  Sweden.  He  was 
visiting  America,  and  expected  to  spend  only  a  few  days 
among  the  cliff  dwellings,  but  he  became  so  much  interested 
that  he  employed  a  number  of  men  and  thoroughly  examined 
the  ruins  in  the  cliff  canon  and  vicinty.  He  took  photo 
graphs  of  the  ruins,  measured  the  rooms  made  plats  and 
ground  plans  and  afterward  published  a  large  quarto  volume 
in  tsvo  languages,  Swedish  and  English. 

He  was  followed  by  a  party  of  young  men  who  were  em 
ployed  by  the  Illustrated  American,  and  were  led  by  Mr.  W. 
K.  Moorehead.  Mr.  Lewis  W.  Gunckel  belonged  to  the  party, 
and  furnished  some  very  interesting  and  valuable  accounts  of 
the  ruins  and  the  pictographs.  This  party  began  their  explo 
rations  on  the  Animas,  in  the  same  region  where  Mr.  J.  G. 
Birney  and  Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan  had  discovered  a  large  commun 
istic  house,  or  pueblo,  of  the  "honey-comb  pattern."  They 
passed  along  the  Rio  San  Juan  to  the  junction  of  the  McElmo 
and  Hovenweep,  where  were  located  most  of  the  ruins  de 
scribed  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes.  Here  Mr.  Gunckel  took  draw 
ings  of  rock  inscriptions  and  made  plates  of  some  of  the  ruined 

*See  American  Antiquarian  Vol.  XII. 


98  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

pueblos.  The  party  then  moved  westward  and  visited  a  num 
ber  of  cave  towns  and  isolated  dwellings  situated  in  the  Box 
canons,  giving  names  to  the  villages  and  towns.  No  definite 
description  of  these  has  ever  been  published  except  in  the 
Illustrated  American.  We  purpose  in  this  article  to  go  over 
in  review  explorations  in  the  Cliff  canon  and  give  a  summary 
of  the  results  which  were  reached,  leaving  the  more  definite 
description  of  the  ruins  in  other  localities  to  a  future  paper. 
We  use  the  title  "Cliff  Palace  and  Its  Surroundings"  Because  of 
the  fact  that  these  names  were  given  to  the  most  interesting 
ruins  discovered,  There  were  also  in  connection  with  these 
ruins  a  large  number  of  "estufas,"  or  "kivas,"  which  were  in 
reality  temples — at  least  the  only  temples  known  to  the  Cliff- 
dwellers  or  Pueblos. 

We   shall    begin    with    Mr.    Chapin's    account.       lie    says: 
"The  spires  of  the  San  Juan  ranges  had  exercised   a  powerful 
fascination  on  me  from  the  moment  I  first  beheld  them  far  to 
^iMMMMB_..,.   ^^s^    the    eastward,  in    scaling   the    savage 
^HO    aretas  of  the  Sierra  Blanca.     The  spell 
became  more  fixed  when,  after  a  year's 
interval,    emerging    from    the    canon 
Gunnison,  I   saw  the  snowy  summits 
piercing  the  blue  sky  only  a  score  of 
miles  to  the  southward.     It  was  at  its 
maximum  as,  leaving  the  main  trans 
continental  line  at  Montrose,  our  little 
train  sped  directly  toward  them,  giv 
ing  us  constant  views,  now,  on  the  left 
of   the  castellated    ridges    of    mighty 
Umcompahgre,  now,  on  the  right,  of 
the  peaks  about  Ouray,  culminating  in 
Mount  Snaefell,  whose  form  was  bare 
ly  traceable  through  the  smoky  haze 
FIG.  i— TOLTEC  GORGE.       that  seemed  to  magnify  its  altitude.* 
Mr.  Chapin  first  described  the  ruins  in  the  Acowitz  Canon, 
which  joins  the  Mancos  from  the  east.      He  says: 

"It  is  one  of  the  finest  of  all  the  side  ramifications,  and  contains  antiqu 
ities  well  worth  investigating.  A  good  Indian  trail  traverses  the  whole 
length  of  Mancos  Canon,  and  similar  paths  lead  for  some  distance  up  its 
branches;  but  to  visit  the  remote  ruins  it  is  much  easier  to  ascend  the  walls 
of  the  same  canon  to  the  surface  of  the  mesa,  cross  the  plateau  and  thus 
strike  the  tributaries  up  toward  the  beginnings.  The  ruins  which  we  pro 
pose  to  photograph  is  situated  on  the  western  cliff  of  Acowitz  Canon.  We 

*See  Chapin's  "Land  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  photographs  of  Cliff  dwellings  and  ruins  furniahed  by  Mr.  Chapin: 

1.  General  view  of  Mancos  canon. 

2.  Tower  in  Mancos  canon. 

3.  SandalCliff-House,  estufal  in  Sandal  Cliff-House  and  Inte.iior 

4.  Plan  of  first  Cliff  dwelling  visited. 

5.  Fortification  at  Acowitz  canon;  also  small  Room  lookout  on  upper  ledge.     Primitive  grind 
stone  and  plan  of  the  Cliff-house. 

6.  An  Impregnable  Fort. 

7.  Cliff  Paiace,  front  view;  ditto  from  opposite  side;  interior  ofrouud  Room;  mural  decor  lion 
and  north  end  of  cliff  palace  and  tower  and  T-shaped  doorway. 


THE   CLIFF   PALACE   AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS. 


here  found  a  wall  which  must  have  been  used  as  a  fortification.  Stepping 
over  the  tumble-down  walls  and  looking  over  the  precipice,  we  found  hewn 
steps  on  which  we  reached  the  bottom  of  the  way.  A  strange,  wild,  lonely 
canon.  No  sounds  were  heard  to  disturb  the  scene  but  the  croaking  of 
ravens  as  they  flew  over  our  heads.  The  great  arched  cliff  hangs  high 
above  the  ruins,  but  a  little  way  from  it  the  canon  ends  in  sheer  solid  walls, 
which  sweep  round  in  a  curve.  Looking  all  about,  we  see  but  one  exit 
above,  and  that  by  the  steps  which  we  had  descended.  Perched  in  a  little 
cleft  over  our  heads  was  a  second  group  of  buildings,  apparently  inaccessi 
ble,  and  in  good  repair. 

On  the  south  corner  is  a  curious  little  building,  to  which  there  is  one 
entrance.  This,  one  would  take  for  a  window,  but  that  no  light  could  pass 
through  it  when  the  whole  wall  was  standing.  It  was  a  fascinatingly  queer 
place.  We  were  struck  with  the  strength  of  the  position,  and  believed  that 
we  could  have  kept  in  check  a  small  army  of  combatants.  We  noticed 
some  peculiar  arrangements.  One  was  a  sort  of  a  low  cubby-hole,  outside 
of  the  main  structure  [Fig.  5],  8  feet  front  and  5  feet  deep,  with  two  little 

doors.  This  may  have 
been  used  as  a  store-room. 
We  found  much  broken 
pottery.  One  of  the  cen 
tral  rooms  is  well  plaster 
ed;  and  is  as  smooth  as  a 
modern  wall.  A  round 
room  had  piers  below  the 
ground  floor.  These  also 
were  plastered,  and  there 
were  little  recesses  in  the 
sides  of  the  wall,  which 
may  have  been  used  as 
shelves.  There  were  some 
interesting  grooves  on  a 
ledge  of  smooth  sandstone. 
These  grooves  in  the  rock 
were  made  by  the  natives  in  sharpening  their  tools.  Most  of  them  were 
large  and  were  probably  used  for  grinding  all  edges.  On  another  ledge  we 
observed  smaller  ones  where  knives,  awls  and  needles  were  whetted.  One 
remarkable  thing,  which  showed  the  eccentricity  of  the  builders,  was  a  room 
which  appeared  to  have  no  entrance;  in  fact,  I  walked  around  it  without  dis 
covering  I  had  passed  a  room.  A  little  investigation  revealed  an  entrance 
at  the  top.  The  enclosure  was  8  feet  square;  the  entrance,  a  hole  I7>^inches 
square.  The  ceiling  was  plastered  over,  and  was  very  firm.  [Fig.  6.] 

We  discovered  some  houses  in  the  Fourth  Fork  of  Acowitz  canon. 
Here  stands  a  good  circular  room,  with  two  doors.  On  the  sand  plateau, 
near  the  brink  of  the  gorge,  is  the  most  remarkable  crevasse  that  I  ever 
saw.  It  made  me  shudder  to  look  into  it,  though  standing  on  the  edge  of  a 
high  cliff  would  produce  no  such  sensation.  From  a  pocket  of  the  canon 
we  had  a  remarkable  view  of  the  whole  length  of  Acowitz  to  the  Mancos, 
and  th9n,  through  that  depression,  that  magnificent  mesa,  which  stands 
above  the  river's  place  of  exit.  It  was  a  truly  sublime  sight.  The  nearer 
scene  is  a  wild  one:  quaking  aspens  grow  in  the  upper  part  of  the  gorge, 
and  in  the  bottom  are  tall,  stately  pines,  which  climb  to  the  top  walls  and 
were  even  with  our  eyes  as  we  looked  across  the  canon." 

Mr.  Chapin  next  describes  the  location  of  the  Cliff  Palace. 
He  says, 

"The  honor  of  the  discovery  of  the  remarkable  ruins  to  which  the  name 
"Cliff  Palace"  has  been  given,  belongs  to  Richard  and  Alfred  Wetherell,* 

*The*e  gentlemen,  in  company  with  Messrs.  Charles  McLoyd,  L.  C  Patrick  and  J.  H.  Gra 
ham,  during  the  winters  of  1888-9,  explored  the  entire  region  along  the  Mancos,  penetrating  into 
the  canon,  tith  the  view  of  collecting  relics.  Up  to  March,  1890,  they  had  exanundd  in  all  182 
nouses.  They  visited  106  houses  in  Navajo  Canon  alone,  and  worked  250  miles  oi  clitt 


FIG.  2.— SCENERY  IN  MARSHALL  PASS. 


100  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

of  Mancos.  The  family  own  large  herds  of  cattle  which  wander  about  on 
the  mesa  verde.  The  care  of  these  herds  often  call  for  long  rides  on  the 
mesa  and  through  the  labyrinth  of  canons.  During  these  long  excursions 
many  magnificent  ruins  have  been  discovered.  Narrow,  winding  defiles, 
precipitous,  bold  headlands  aud  overhanging  ledges  are  the  characteristics 
of  one  canon,  called  the  Cliff  Canon. 

"On  reaching  the  bank  of  the  canon  opposite  the  wonderful  structure, 
the  observer  cannot  but  be  astonished  at  the  first  sight  of  the  long  line  of 
solid  masonry  which  he  beholds  across  the  chasms,  here*  but  a  thousand 
feet  wide.  In  the  first  burst  of  enthusiasm  it  strikes  one  as  being  the  ruins 
of  a  great  palace,  erected  by  some  powerful  chieftain  of  the  lost  people. 
The  best  time  to  see  the  ruins  is  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  sun  is  shining 
into  the  cavern.  The  effect  is  much  finer  than  when  viewed  in  the  morn 
ing.  Surely  its  discoverer  did  not  exaggerate  the  beauty  and  magnitude  of 
this  strange  ruin.  It  occupies  a  great  space  under  a  grand  ovaj  cliff,  ap- 


FIG.  3.   CLIFF    PALACE,   SIDE   VIEW. 

pearing  like  a  ruined  fortress,  with  ramparts,  bastions  and  dismantled  tow 
ers.  The  stones  in  front  have  broken  away,  but  behind  them  rise  the  walls 
of  a  second  story,  and  in  the  rear  of  these,  under  a  dark  cavern,  stands  the 
third  tier  of  masonry.  Still  farther  back  in  the  gloomy  recess,  little  houses 
rest  on  upper  ledges.  [See  Fig.  3.]  A  short  distance'  down  the  canon  i  re 
cosy  buildings,  perched  in  utterly  inaccessible  nooks.  [See  Eig.  4.] 

"The  scenery  is  marvellous.  The  view  down  the  canon  to  the  Mancos 
is  alone  worth  the  journey  to  see.  To  reach  the  ruins,  one  must  descend 
into  the  canon  from  the  opposite  side  What  would  otherwise  be  a  hazard 
ous  proceeding  is  rendered  easy  by  using  the  steps  which  were  cut  into  the 
wall  by  the  builders  of  the  fortress'.  There  are  fifteen  of  these  scooped-out 
hollows  in  the  rock,  which  cover,  perhaps,  half  the  distance  down  the  prec 
ipice.  One  wonders  at  the  good  preservation  of  these  hand-holes  in  the 
rocks;  even  small  cuttings  to  give  place  for  a  finger  are  sometimes  placed 
exactly  right,  even  in  awkward  places.  It  is  evident  why  they  were  so 
placed,  and  that  they  have  not  been  changed  by  the  forces  of  the  air  in  sev- 


Many  ruins  were  found  in  unsuspected  places.  Many  were  worth  a  visit,  just  to  look  at.  Some 
appeared  comparatively  new;  others  as  if  they  had  been  long  occupied;  and  still  others  were 
m.u£.h,  dilapidated,  scarcely  a  vestige  remaining.  They  commenced  their  excavations  at  the  firtt 
Cliff-house  in  Mancos  Canon,  to  which  the  name  Samdal  Cliff-house  was  given.  This  has  been 
described  by  Mr.  Chapin,  and  several  illustrations  of  it  are  given  in  his  book.  They  penetrated 
the  depths  of  the  Cliff  canon  and  from  this,  and  other  places,  gathered  a  large  collection  of  relics, 
which  were  first  placed  in  the  Historical  rooms  at  Denver,  but  were  afterward  sold  to  Rev  J  H 
Green,  who  placed  them  on  exhibition  at  the  World's  Fair  and  then.  so!d  them  to  the  University 
ofFennsylvama. 


THE   CLIFF  PALACE   AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS.         101 

eral  hundred  years  that  have  probably  elapsed  since  they  were  chipped  out 
by  an  axe  made  of  firmer  rock.  There  occurs  to  my  mind  but  one  explana 
tion  of  their  preservation:  erosion  by  wind  is  one  of  the  factors  in  chiseling 
rock-forms  about  the  Mancos,  and  as  we  observe  sand  in  these  hollows,  we 
suppose  the  wind  at  times  keeps  the  grains  eddying  round,  and  thus  erosion 
in  the  depression  keeps  pace,  perhaps  even  gains,  on  the  rate  of  denuda 
tion  of  the  smooth  cliff. 

•'It  takes  but  a  few  minutes  to  cross  the  bed  of  the  canon.  In  the  bot 
tom  is  a  secondary  gulch,  which  requires  care  in  descending.  We  hung  a 
rope,  or  lasso,  over  some  steep,  smooth  ledges  and  let  ourselves  down  by  it. 
\Ve  left  it  hanging  there  and  used  it  to  ascend  by  on  our  return  Nearer 
approach  increases  the  interest  in  the  marvel.  F'rom  the  south  end  of  the 
ruin,  which  is  first  attained,  trees  hide  the  northern  walls,  yet  the  view  is 
beautiful.  The  space  covered  by  the  building  is  ,125  feet  long,  80  feet  high 
in  front,  and  80  feet  deep  in  the  center,  and  124  rooms  have  been  traced  out 


FIG.  4.    CLIFF  PALACE,  SIDE  VIEW. 

on  the  ground  floor.  So  many  walls  have  fallen  that  i'  is  difficult  to  recon 
struct  the  building  in  imagination,  but  the  photograph  shows  that  there 
must  have  been  several  stories;  thus  a  thousand  persons  may  easily  have 
lived  within  its  confines.  There  are  towers  and  circular  rooms,  square  and 
rectangular  enclosures,  all  with  a  seeming  symmetry,  though  in  some  places 
the  walls  look  as  if  they  had  been  put  up  as  additions  at  liter  periods.  One 
of  the  towers  is  barrel  shaped;  others  are  true  cylinders.  The  diameter  of 
one  room,  or  estufa,  is  16^  feet;  there  are  six  piers  in  it,  which  are  well 
plastered,  and  five  recess  holes,  which  appear  as  if  constructed  for  shelves. 
Inseveral  rooms  are  good  fire-places.  One  of  our  party  built  a  fire  in  the 
largest  one,  which  had  a  flue,  but  found  the  draught  too  strong  for  his  light 
wood,  and  came  near  going  up  with  the  smoke.  In  another  room,  where 
the  outer  wall  had  fallen  away,  an  attempt  was  made  at  ornamentation.  A 
broad  band  had  been  painted  across  the  wall,  and  above  it  a  peculiar  dec 
oration,  the  lines  of  which  were  similar  to  embellishment  on  the  pottery. 
In  one  place  corn-cobs  were  embellished  in  the  plaster,  the  cobs  as  well  as 
the  kernels  of  corn  were  of  small  si/,e,  similar  to  that  which  the  Ute  squaws 
raise  without  irrigation.  Besides  corn,  it  is  known  that  the  Cliff-dwellers 
raised  beans  and  squash.  We  found  a  large  stone  mortar,  which  may  have 
been  used  to  grind  the  corn.  Broken  pottery  was  everywhere  present. 
Specimens  similar  to  those  we  had  collected  in  the  valley  ruins  convincing 
us  of  the  identity  of  the  builders  of  the  two  classes  of  houses.  We  found 
parts  of  skulls  and  skeletons,  and  fragments  of  weapons  and  pieces  of  cloth. 
The  burial  place  of  the  clan  was  down  under  the  rear  of  the  cave. 


10'2 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


Notwithstanding  the  imposing  name  which  we  have  given  it,  and  which 
its  striking  appearance  seems  to  justify,  it  was  a  communistic  dwelling,  or 
clan  village.  There  is  no  hall  leading  through  it,  and  no  signs  that  it  was  a 
home  prepared  for  the  ruler  of  a  people.  It  owes  its  beauty  principally  to 
the  remains  of  two  towers,  and  its  magnitude  to  the  fact  that  the  length  of 
the  platform  (ledge)  and  depth  and  height  of  the  natural  arch  allowed  of 
such  a  building  in  such  a  remote  quarter.  This  large,  open  cave,  as  well  as 
others  in  this  region,  are  natural,  and  do  not  appear  to  have  been  enlarged 
in  any  way  by  man."  * 

Mr.  Chapin  also  visited  a  number  of  other  cliff  dwellings, 
several  of  them  in  the  Navajo  canon,  a  branch  of  the  Mancos 
canon.  To  these  names  have  been  given,  which  are  descript 
ive  of  their  peculiarties.  He  speaks  of  one  which  is  well  pre 
served  and  which,  perched  high  up  on  a  cliff,  looks  as  if  newly 


FIG.  5.  LOOKOUT  IX  THE  ACOWITZ  CANON. 

constructed.  To  this  the  name  of  "Balcony  House"  has  been 
given,  as  timbers  project  from  the  high  walls.  In  another  canon 
are  three  interesting  ruins  in  close  proximity.  In  one  of  these 
houses  is  a  fire-place  which  has  a  raised  hearth  and  fender.  In 
another  house  is  an  estufa,  where  there  is  a  fire-place  once 
honored  with  a  chimney .f 

*There  are  few  caves  in  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan  and  the  Mancos,  whibh  seem  to  have  been 
epened  and  walled  up,  descriptions  of  which  have  been  given  by  W.  H.  Holmes  and  Mr.  Jack- 
n.  A  laage  number  of  such  caves  are  found  on  the  Salado  river  to  the  southwest  of  this,  and 
on  the  headwaters  of  the  Gila  river,  and  the  tributaries  of  the  Rio  Grande  These  have  been  de 
scribed  by  Mr.  A.  F.  handelier,  Maj.  J.  W.  Powell,  Charles  F.  Lummis,  Victor  Mindcliff.  None 
ot  these  present  any  such  specimens  of  architecture  as  the  Cliff  Palace. 

tFire-places  have  been  rarely  observed  among  the  Cliff  dwellings.  Mr.  Holmes  describes 
one  in  the  Mancos  canon.  Mr.  Walter  J.  Fewkes  describes  fire-places  found  in  the  ruins  near 
/um.  Mr.  F.  F.  Bickford  says  [Century  Magazine,  Oct.,  1890],  in  describing  ruins  on  the  Chaco, 
neither  nre-places  nor  flues  are  to  be  found,  and  it  is  probable  that  fires  were  never  built  in  the 
living  apartments.  Fire-places  were  found  in  nearly  al!  the  estufas,  and  an  air  chamber  connect 
ing  the  estufa  with  the  outside  air  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  a  draft  through  the  estufa  and  thus 
carry  the  smoke  up  throug  the  opening  in  the  roof. 


d 
son. 


THE    CLIFF    PALACE   AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS. 


108 


The  "Spruce  Tree  House"  was  another  ruined  building 
which  he  photographed  and  described  in  his  book.  His  de 
scription  of  this  is  as  follows: 

"About  the  best  preserved  specimen  of  a  cliff-dwelling  eyrie 
—at  least  one  that  retains  more  features  of  interest  than  many 
of  the  other  ruins — is  one  that  is  situated  in  a  right-hand 
branch  of  the  second  large  right-hand  fork  of  Navajo  canon. 
It  is  about  three  hundred  feet  long.  Under  a  natural  shelter 
ing  rock,  remains  of  three  stories  are  standing.  Originally  the 
building  was  probably  five  stories  high,  and  was  built  in  the 
form  of  a  terrace,  the  two  lower  tiers  having  been  built  outside 
the  limits  of  the  arch,  and  lower  than  the  platform  of  the  cave, 


FIG.  6.      ESTl'FA  WITH  AIR  FLUE. 

so  that  what  we  now  see  standing  are  the  three  upper  stories, 
The  lower  parts  of  the  edifice,  more  exposed  to  weatherings 
have  mostly  crumbled  away.  The  entrance  to  apartments  in 
the  cave  was  probably  made  by  passing  over  the  top  of  the 
outside  buildings. 

"The  masonry  of  the  building  is  all  of  very  good  order;  the 
stones  were  laid  in  mortar  and  the  plastering  carefully  put  on, 
though,  as  the  centuries  have  elapsed,  it  has  peeled  off  in  cer 
tain  spots.  At  the  north  end  of  the  ruin  is  a  specimen  of 
masonry  not  to  be  seen  in  any  other  ciiff  house  yet  discovered. 
This  is  a  plastered  stone  pier  which  supports  the  wall  of  an 
upper  loft.  It  is  ten  inches  square  and  about  four  feet  high. 
Resting  on  it  are  spruce  timbers,  which  rnn  from  an  outer  wall 
across  the  pier  to  the  back  of  the  cave.  Above  the  pier  is  a 


104  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

good  specimen  of  a  T-shaped  door  with  lintel  of  wood  and  sill 
of  stone. 

The  largest  cliff-dwelling-  described  by  Mr.  Chapin  is  one 
to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  the  "Loop-Hole  Fortress."  He 
describes  it  as  follows: 

"There  is  another  mighty  arch  in  one  of  the  Navajo  canons 
which  shelters  a  ruin  well  worthy  of  description,  The  build 
ing  is  visible  from  the  brink  of  the  canon,  as  one  journeys  up 
its  length.  To  find  a  place  to  descend,  one  must  round  the 
head  of  the  canon  and  follow  a  long  winding  route  over  and 
under  ledges  to  the  canon  bed.  The  noble  arch  rises  a  hund 
red  feet  above  the  natural  platform.  The  sloping  bed  of  the 
canon  reaches  to  the  base  of  this  platform,  which  rises  like  a 
terrace  to  a  height  of  about  twenty  feet.  Trees  and  bushes 
grow  up  to  the  base  of  the  ledge.  The  ledge  is  approximately 
480  feet  long,  as  we  determined  by  pacing.  This  is  the  largest 
cliff-dwelling  yet  discovered  in  this  region.  The  front  walls 
were  built  upon  the  rim  of  the  platform,  which  is  curved  to  the 
general  form  of  the  ampitheatre,  and  gives  the  building  the 
appearance  of  an  impregnable  fortress.  The  walls  of  solid 
masonry  remain  firm,  and  present  an  imposing  front.  In  the 
center  the  stones  have  broken  away  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
leave  standing  a  high  wall,  which  gives  a  gothic  appearance  to 
the  ruin. 

"At  one  end  three  stories  remain  standing;  the  upper  room 
is  squeezed  in  under  the  arch  and  was  entered  by  a  low  door. 
These  high-standing  walls  show  how  the  cliff  dwellings  were 
originally  constructed.  They  reached  to  the  roof  of  the  cave, 
and  were  necessarily  higher  in  front  than  in  the  rear,  for  the 
cliffs  make  over  them  an  arch  which  served  as  a  natural  roof. 
As  first  built,  much  more  space  thau  the  platform  was  utilized, 
and  a  lower  terrace  occupied.  Walls  that  divided  rooms  and 
formed  the  ends  of  the  structure  run  down  among  the  trees 
and  bushes;  the  lateral  walls  have  all  fallen  down.  In  some 
places,  where  the  ground  is  steeply  inclined,  the  stones  of  the 
ruin  lie  like  a  talus  on  a  mountain-side. 

"On  ledges  above  the  main  edifice  are  smaller  buildings, 
and  in  one  cranny  is  a  long,  low  structure,  with  thirteen  loop 
holes  in  front  and  two  at  the  end.  Those  in  front  open  at  dif 
ferent  angles,  so  that  any  approach  from  below  could  be  ob 
served  by  the  watching  cliff-climbers.  From  this  fact  I  have 
named  this  ruin  the  "Loop-Hole  Fortress."  This  ruin,  if  un 
disturbed,  will  doubtless  remain  for  centuries  in  about  its  pres 
ent  condition,  and  cannot  but  fascinate  the  archcneologists  who 
shall  chance  to  visit  it.  Perhaps  these  same  ruins,  if  placed  on 
a  plain,  or  in  a  quiet  valley,  would  not  appeal  so  strongly  to 
our  sense  of  the  marvellous.  Here,  in  a  remote  canon,  far 
from  the  river,  far  from  water  of  any  kind,  with  high  frowning 
walls  upon  three  sides  and  an  untracked  ravine  below  it,  one 


THE    CLIFF   PALACE    AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS.         105 

wonders  why  the  lost  tribes  should  have  selected  such  a  place 
for  their  home. 

"The  standing  masonry,  in  itself,  is  of  interest.  The  solid 
front  does  not  give  the  idea  of  patchwork,  as  presented  in 
many  of  the  buildings  of  che  Cliff-Dweflers.  Standing  on  the 
parapet  and  looking  along  the  front  line,  there  is  not  a  break 
to  be  seen  in  its  continuity,  except  as  the  platform  bulges  in  or 
out.  Save  that  the  stones  were  already  at  hand,  shapen  by 
the  elements  as  they  had  broken  off  from  the  cliffs  and  over 
hanging  ledges,  the  marvel  would  be  greater  that  a  people, 
\vhh  only  stone  and  wooden  tools,  could  have  accomplished 
such  a  work  The  light  of  noonday  floods  the  walls  of  the 
ramparts  and  penetrates  into  the  deep  recesses  of  the  cave, 
but  as  the  sun  sinks  westward  a  dark  shadow  creeps  across  the 
front  of  the  caver  and  the  interior  is  deep  gloom.  It  is  then 
that  the  explorer,  standing  among  the  crumbled  walls  and  gaz 
ing  up  at  the  loop-holes  above,  or  following  with  his  eye  the 
course  of  the  canon  down  to  its  end  where  it  joins  the  greater 
gorgef  wonders  what  events  happened  to  cause  this  strong 
fortress  to  be  deserted  or  overthrown.  There  must  have  been 
a  fearful  struggle  between  a  people  who  were  emerging  from 
barbarism,  and  more  savage  hordes,  or  some  great  catastrophe 
of  Nature  overwhelmed  them." 

Mr.  Nordenskjold's  description  of  the  Cliff  Palace  corres 
ponds  to  that  given  by  Mr.  Chapin,  but  is  more  complete. 
In  a  long  but  not  very  deep  branch  of  Cliff  canon,  and  near 
a  wild  and  gloomy  gorge  lies  the  largest  of  the  ruins  on  the 
mesa  verde.  Strange  and  indescribable  is  the  impression  on 
the  traveler,  when,  after  a  long  and  tiresome  ride  through  mo 
notonous  pinon  forests,  he  suddenly  halts  on  the  brink  of  the 
precipice  and  in  the  opposite  cliff  beholds  the  ruins  of  the 
Cliff  Palace,  framed  in  the  massive  vault  of  rock  above,  and  in 
a  bed  of  sun-lit  cedar  and  pinon  trees  below.  This  ruin  well 
deserves  its  name,  for  with  its  round  towers  and  high  walls 
rising  out  of  the  heaps  of  stones  deep  in  the  mysterious  twi 
light  of  the  cavern,  and  defying,  in  their  sheltered  site,  the 
ravages  of  time,  it  resembles,  at  a  distance,  an  enchanted  cas 
tle. 

The  Cliff  Palace  is  probably  the  largest  ruin  of  its  kind 
known  in  the  United  States  In  the  plate  which  represents  the 
whole  series,  over  a  hundred  rooms  are  shown.  About  twenty 
of  them  are  estufas,  Among  the  rubbish  and  stones  in  front 
the  ruin  are  a  few  more  walls  not  marked  in  the  plan.  The 
stones  are  carefully  dressed,  and  often  laid  in  regular  courses; 
the  walls  are  perpendicular,  sometimes  leaning  slightly  inwards 
at  the  same  angle  all  around  the  room,  this  being  part  of  the 
design,  All  the  corners  form  almost  perfect  right  angles 
when  the  surroundings  have  permitted  the  builders  to  observe 
this  rule.  This  remark  also  applies  to  the  dwellings,  the  sides 
of  which  are  true  and  even.  The  lintel  often  consists  of  a 


101.  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

large  stone  slab,  extending  right  across  the  opening.  On 
closer  observation  we  find  that  in  the  Cliff  Palace  we  may  dis 
cern  two  slightly  different  methods  of  building.  The  lower 
walls,  where  the  stones  are  only  rough  hewn  and  laid  without 
order,  are  often  surmounted  by  walls  of  carefully  dressed 
blocks  in  regular  courses.  This  circumstance  suggests  that  the 
cave  was  inhabited  during  two  different  periods. 

The  rooms  of  the  Cliff  Palace  seem  to  have  been  better  pro 
vided  with  light  and  air  than  the  cliff  dwellings  in  general, 
small  peep-holes  appearing  at  several  places  in  tne  walls.  The 
door-ways,  as  in  other  cliff-dwellings,  are  either  rectangular  or 
T-shaped.* 

Mr.  Nordenksjold  lays  great  stress  on  the  skill  to  which 
the  walls  of  the  Cliff  Palace  bear  witness,  and  the  stability  and 
strength  which  has  been  supplied  to  them  by  the  careful  dress 
ing  of  the  blocks  and  the  chinking  of  the  interstices  with  small 
chips  of  stone.  A  point  remarked  by  Jacksun  in  his  descrip 
tion  of  the  ruins  of  southwestern  Colorado,  is  that  the  finger 
marks  of  the  masons  may  still  be  traced  in  the  mortar,  and  that 
these  marks  are  so  small  as  to  suggest  that  the  work  of  build 
ing  was  performed  by  women. 

Like  Spruce  Tree  House,  and  other  large  ruins,  the  Cliff 
Palace  contains  at  the  back  of  the  cave  extensive  open  spaces, 
where  tame  turkeys  were  probably  kept.  In  this  part  of  the 
village  three  small  rooms,  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  build 
ing,  occupy  a  position  close  to  the  cliff;  two  of  them  built  of 
large  flat  slabs  of  stone,  lie  close  together;  the  third,  oi  unhewn 
sandstone,  is  situated  farther  north.  These  rooms  may  serve 
as  examples  of  the  most  primitive  form  of  architecture  among 
the  Cliff  people. 

In  the  Cliff  Palace,  the  rooms  lie  on  different  levels,  the 
ground  occupied  by  them  being  very  rough.  In  several  places 
terraces  have  been  constructed,  in  order  to  procure  a  level 
foundation,  and  here,  as  in  their  other  architectural  labors,  the 
Cliff-dwellers  have  displayed  considerable  skill. f 


*Some  of  the  latter  are  of  unusual  size;  in  one  instance  1.05  m.  high  and  0.61  m.  broad  at  the 
top.  The  thickness  of  the  walls  is  generally  about  0.13  m.,  sometimes,  in  the  outer  walls,  as  much 
as  0.65  m.  As  a  rule  they  are  not  painted,  but,  in  some  rooms,  covered  with  a  thin  coat  of  yellow 
plaster. 


1 1  he  plate,  as  I  have  justmentioned,  is  a  photograph  of  the  Cliff  Palace  from  the  north  To 
the  extreme  left  of  the  plate  a  number  of  much  dilapidated  walls  may  be  seen.  They  corrsepond 
to  rooms  1-12  in  the  plan.  To  the  right  of  these  walls  lies  a  whole  block  of  rooms  (13-18)  several 
stories  nigh  and  built  on  a  huge  rock,  which  has  fallen  from  the  roof  of  the  cave.  The  outermost 
room  (14  in  plan;  to  left  in  plate  13)  is  bounded  on  the  outside  by  a  high  wall,  the  outlines  of  which 
stand  off  sharply  from  the  dark  background  of  the  cave.  The  wall  is  built  in  a  quadrant  at  the 
edge  of  the  rock  just  mentioned,  which  has  been  carefully  dressed,  the  wall  thus  forming  appar 
ently,  an  immediate  continuation  of  the  rock.  The  latter  is  coursed  by  a  fissure,  which  also  ex 
tends  through  the  wall.  This  crevasse  must,  therefore,  have  appeared  subsequent  to  the  building 
operations.  To  the  right  of  this  curved  wall  four  rooms  and  in  front  of  them  two  terraces  con 
nected  by  a  step.  One  of  the  rooms  is  surrounded  by  walls  three  stories  high,  and  reaching  up  to 
the  roof  of  the  cave.  The  terraces  are  bounded  to  the  north  by  a  rather  high  wall,  standing  apart 
trorn  the  remainder  of  the  building.  Not  far  from  the  rooms  just  mentioned,  but  a  little  further 
back,  he  two  cylindrical  chambers  The  round  room  is  joined  by  a  wall  to  a  long  series  of  cham 
ps,  which  are  very  low,  though  thick  walls  extend  to  the  rocks  above  them.  They  probably 
served  as  store-rooms.  These  chambers  front  on  a  "street,"  on  the  opposite  side  of  which  lie  a 
number  of  apartments,  among  them  a  remarkable  estufa.  In  front  lies  another  estufa,  and  not 
tar  from  the  latter  a  third. 


mM 


SQUARE  TOWER  IN  THE  CLIFF  PALACE. 


PORTION  OF  THE  -CLIFF  PALACE, 


THE   CLIFF   PALACE   AND    ITS  SURROUNDINGS.  107 

Not  far  from  Cliff  Palace,  Mr.  Nordenskjold  found  the  re 
markable  and  extensive  cliff-dwelling,  which  he  called  "Bal 
cony  House."  The  following  is  his  description: 

This  cliff  dwelling  is  the  best  preserved  of  all  the  ruins  on  the  Mesa 
Verda.  It  also  seems  as  if  the  architecture  of  the  Cliff  people  had  here 
reached  us  culminating  point.  Still  more  care  has  been  bestowed  on  the 
erection  of  the  walls  in  general  than  in  the  Cliff  Palace.  Balcony  House 
occupied  a  better  position  for  purposes  of  defense  than  the  other  large 
ruins  described.  A  handful  of  men,  posted  in  the  cliff-house,  coutd  repel 
the  attack  of  a  numerous  force.  At  the  south  end  of  the  ruin,  additional 
precautions  have  been  taken  for  the  strengthening  of  its  defense.  A  very 
narrow  cleft,  which  forms  the  only  means  of  reaching  the  south  part  of  the 
ledge,  has  been  walled  up  to  a  height  of  nearly  \6l/2  feet.  The  lower  part 
of  the  wall  closing  this  cleft  is  pierced  by  a  na'rrovv  tunnel.  Through  this 
tunnel  a  man  may  creep  on  hands  and  knees  from  the  ^liff  dwelling  to  the 
south  part  of  the  ledge,  The  latter  affords  a  footing,  with  the  precipice  to 
the  left  and  the  cliff  to  the  right,  for  about  a  hundred  paces,  the  ledge  being 
here  terminated  by  the  perpendicular  wall  of  the  canon.  The  ruined  wails 
of  a  strong  tower,  built  to  cut  off  approach  on  the  side,  may  still  be  traced. 
A  supporting  wall  has  been  erected  on  a  lower  ledge,  to  form  a  stable  foun 
dation  for  the  outer  wall  of  the  upper  rooms,  where  the  higher  ledge  was 
too  narrow  or  too  rough  for  building  purposes,  The  total  height  of  the 
wall  has  thus  been  raised  to  6.5  m.  South  of  the  room  fronted  by  this  wall 
is  a  small  open  court,  bounded  at  the  base  by  a  few  very 'regular  and  well- 
preserved  walls,  which  rise  to  the  roof  of  the  cave.  On  the  outer  side  the 
court  is  enclosed  within  alow,  thick  wall,  built  on  the  edge  of  the  preci 
pice.  The  second  story  is  furnished,  along  the  wall  just  mentioned,  with 
a  balcony,  the  joists  between  the  two  stories  project  a  couple  of  feet,  long 
poles  lie  across  them  parallel  to  the  walls,  the  poles  are  covered  with  a 
layer  of  cedar  bast  and  finally  with  dried  clay.  This  balcony  was  used  as 
a  means  of  communication  between  the  rooms  in  the  upper  story.  The 
roof  of  the  rooms  just  north  of  this  point  is  constructed  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  balcony  just  described.  It  projects  a  few  feet  beyond  the  walls  on 
two  sides,  forming  a  spacious  platform.  In  most  of  tho  cliff-dwellings  the 
roofs  probably  consisted  of  similar  platforms,  and  it  was  presumably  here 
that  the  cliff-dwellers  spent  most  of  their  time  and  performed  their  house 
hold  duties,  as  the  custom  is  to  the  present  day  among  the  Moki  Indians 
of  Arizona  Near  the  cliff,  between  the  platform  and  the  balcony,  is  a  deep 
hole,  forming  a  small  passage;  through  which  it  is  possible  to  descend  by 
the  aid  o!  some  pegs  driven  into  the  walls,  to  a  narrow  ledge,  Ladders 
seem,  as  mentioned  above,  to  have  been  seldom  employed  by  the  Cliff- 
people.  The  perilous  climbs,  that  formed  a  paft  of  their  daily  life,  had  in 
ured  them  to  difficult  pathways. 

The  staple  industry  of  the  Cliff-people  was  the  cultivation  of  maize. 
This  may  be  gathered  from  the  plentiful  remains  of  this  cereal  to  be  seen 
everywhere  in  the  cliff-dwellings  and  their  neighborhood.  Well-preserved 
ears  of  maize  are  sometimes  found  in  the  ruins.  They  beiong  to  several 
varieties,  and  are  yellow  or  redd^h  brown. 

Besides  maize,  the  Cliff-dwellers  cultivated  beans  of  a  brown  variety, 
solitary  specimens  of  which  I  found  in  some  ruins,  and  probably  some 
species  of  gourds.  The  stalks  of  the  latter  are  common;  bits  of  the  rind 
are  also  found,  and,  more  seldom,  the  seeds.  Cotton  was  used  by  the  Cliff- 
dwellers,  as  the  raw  material  of  superior  textile  fabr.cs,  numerous  frag 
ment  of  cotton  cloth,  have  been  found.  The  cotton  shrub  was  probably 
cultivated  by  the  Cliff-people,  at  least  in  some  localities,  for  in  the  cliff- 
dwellings  of  southern  Utah  the  seeds  of  this  shrub  have  been  observed, 

The  yucca  plant  affoided  an  excellent  raw  material  for  rope,  cord,  and 
coarse  woven  fabrics.  This  plant,  which  is  extremely  common  both  on  the 
mesa  and  in  the  beds  of  the  canons,  has  long,  narrow,  sharp  leaves,  com 
posed  of  long  and  very  tough  fibres. 

The  animal  kingdom,  too,  was  laid  under  contribution  for  m:scellan- 


108  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

ecus  purposes.  Several  circu  nstances  lead  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Cliff-dwellers  kept  tame  birds,  probably  the  turkey,  in  a  domesticated  state. 
This  bird  probably  supplied  the  down  of  which  the  so  called  feather  cloth, 
or  rather  down  cloth,  was  made,  for  the  maierial  consists  of  the  humeral 
quill-coverts  of  a  gallinaceous  bird, 

Among  a  variety  of  implements,  awls  are  the  most  common.  They  are 
found  in  great  numbers  in  all  the  cliff  dwellings,  and  also  among  the  frag 
ments  of  pottery  in  the  barrows  on  the  mesa.  They  were  made  of  the 
bones  of  birds  and  small  mammals,  and  sharpened  on  the  face  cf  the  sand 
stone  cliff. 

Mr.  Nordenksjold  also  explored  a  group  of  ruins  situated  in 
Cliff  canon,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  the  "Long  House,1' 
though  this  is  the  same  ruin  which  Mr.  Chapin  calls  the  "Loop 
Hole  Fort,"  as  the  situation  of  the  buildings  on  the  ledge  of 
rocks  and  the  presence  of  certain  loop-holes  through  the  walls 
suggested  the  idea  that  it  was  both  a  dwelling  and  a  fortress, 
though  Mr.  Mindeliff  claims  that  the  cliff  houses  were  not 
fortresses,  but  were  temporary  residences.  The  following  is 
the  description  of  the  fortress,  what  he  calls  the  "Long  House:" 

"From  the  bottom  of  the  canon  we  force  our  way  through  dense,  thick 
ets  some  hundreds  of  feet  up  the  slope.  Here  we  reach  the  deep  cliffs, 
rising  ledge  upon  ledge,  to  the  mesa.  The  ruin  lies  upon  one  of  the  lowest 
ledges,  and  the  climb,  though  troublesome,  is  attended  with  no  serious  diffi 
culties, 

'lAmong  half  ruined  walls  and  heaps  of  stones,  we  can  distinguish 
eleven  different  rooms,  lying  in  an  irregular  row  along  the  narrow  shelf 
close  to  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  and  sheltered  by  the  overhanging  rock. 
The  way  by  which  we  have  climbed  has  led  us  first  into  a  circular  room,  or 
estufa,  still  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation.  The  wall  that  lies  nearest  the 
precipice  is,  for  the  most  part,  in  ruins;  the  rest  of  the  room  is  well  pre 
served.  After  about  half  a  metre  of  dust  and  rubbish  had  been  removed, 
we  were  able  to  ascertain  that  the  walls  formed  a  cylinder  4.3  metres  in  di 
ameter.  The  thickness  of  the  wall  is  considerable  and  varies,  the  spaces 
between  the  points  where  the  cylinder  touches  the  walls  tf  the  adjoining 
rooms  having  been  filled  up  with  masoniy.  The  height  of  the  room  is  2  m. 
The  roof  has  long  since  fallen  in,  and  only  one  or  two  beams  are  left  among 
the  rubbish.  To  a  height  of  1.2  m  from  the  floor  the  wall  is  perfectly  even 
and  has  the  form  of  a  cylinder,  or,  rather,  of  a  truncate  cone,  as  it  leans 
slightly  inwards.  The  upper  portion  is  divided  by  six  deep  niches  into  the 
same  number  of  pillars/  The  floor  is  of  clay,  hard  and  perfectly  even. 
[See  Fig.  6.]  Near  the  center  is  a  round  depression,  or  hole,  entirely  fnll 
of  white  ashes,  undoubtedly  the  hearth.  Between  the  hearth  and  the  outer 
wall  stands  a  narrow  curved  wall,  8  in.  high.  Behind  this  wall,  iu  the  same 
plane  as  the  floor,  is  a  rectangular  opening,  which  forms  the  mouth  of  a 
narrow  passage  or  tunnel,  which  runs  in  horizontal  direction,  and  then  goes 
straight  upwards  out  into  the  open  air,* 

The  wall  between  the  hearth  and  the  singular  passage,  or  tunne  ,  is  re 
placed  by  a  large  slab  of  stone,  set  on  end.  It  is  difficult  to  say  for  what 
purpose  this  tunnel  has  been  constructed,  and  the  slab  of  stone  or  the  wall 
erected  in  front  of  it.  As  I  have  mentioned  above  this  arrangement  is 
found  in  all  the  estufas.  The  entrance  to  the  estufa  was  probably  in  the 
roof. 

Excavations  were  begun.  Among  the  many  objects  discovered  were 
half  of  a  bow,  three  or  four  arrows,  a  stone  axe  with  handle  and  a  bone  and 

*Similar  openings,  or  air  flues,  were  discovered  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  by  Mr.  Chapin  and 
Mr.  Louis  W.  Guenckel.  Mr.  Mindeliff  also  discovered  the  same  in  the  canon  de  Chilley,  and  de 
scribes,  it  in  the  XVth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  and  gives  cuts  to  illustrate 
it.  It  was  undoubtedly  designed  as  a  flue,  or  air  chamber,  and  served  the  double  purpose  of  a 
ventilator  for  the  room  and  a  draft  for  carrying  the  smoke  up  through  the  roof, 


•m 

VIEW    SHOWING   TERRACES   AND    DIFFERENT   STORIES. 


110 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


knife.  It  was  evident  that  not  the  least  trace  of  moisture  had  been  able  to 
reach  the  rooms  under  the  sheltering  rock.  And  this  explains  how  such 
things  as  cotton  cloth,  wooden  implements,  string,  pieces  of  hide  and  the 
like,  were  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation.  My  catalogue  includes  more 
than  a  hundred  objects.  The  most  of  them  were  such  as  were  found  every 
where  in  the  other  cliff  dwellings.  These  would  include:  pieces  of  hide, 
chiefly  of  deer  and  mountain  sheep,  which  were  used  for  belts;  moccasins, 
and  bags  which  contained  salt;  pieces  of  cloth,  well  and  evenly  wover, 
rather  coarse;  a  great  number  of  wooden  and  bone  implements,  and 
numerous  fragments  of  hide  ane  woven  articles.  Among  the  most  common 
articles  were:  pieces  of  cords,  yucca  fibre,  sandals,  pottery,  maize,  imple 
ments  of  bone  and  wcod  and  stone  implements..  Not  a  trace  of  metal  has 
been  found.  The  list  shows  that  the  former  inhabitants  of  the  c!iff-dwell- 


FIG.  7.— THREE-CORNERED   TOWER    IX    NAVAJO   CANON. 

ings  were  an  agricultural  people  on  the  level  of  the  stone  age,  who  had  at 
tained  a  very  high  rank  in  the  art  of  making  and  ornamenting. 

"On  examining  the  interior  of  the  estufas  in  Long  House,  we  find  even 
there  exactly  the  same  arrangement:  a  round  hollow  nearthe  middle,  filled 
with  ashes;  between  this  hollow  and  the  wall  a  low  partition;  behind  the 
partition  the  entrance  of  the  above-mentioned  passage,  which  first  runs  a 
few  metres  in  a  horizontal  direction  and  then  straight  up  to  the  bottom  of 
the  niche,  or  out  into  the  open  air;  and,  lastly,  the  six  deep,  broad  niches  in 
the  circular  wall,  separated  by  the  same  number  of  pillars.  The  estufa 
itself  is  enclosed  in  a  quadrangular  room;  the  space  between  the  inner 
cylindrical  walls  and  the  outer  rectilinear  ones  is  filled  up  to  a  level  with 
the  walls  of  the  estufa,  the  cylindrical  room  being  thus  embedded  in  a 
solid  cubical  mass  of  masonry,  In  all  the  estufas  the  same  construction  is 
repeated,  and  the  dimensions  of  the  rooms  are  almost  exactly  similar. 

Below  this  row  of  six  estufas  lies  a  series  of  rooms,  for  the  must  part 
buried  under  heaps  of  rubble  and  stones.  Further  east,  on  the  same  ledge 


THE   CLIFF    PALACE  AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS. 


Ill 


as  the  estufas,  lies  a  block  of  rooms,  the  walls  of  which  are  still  in  a  good 
state  of  preservation,  and  extend  quite  up  to  the  roof  rock.  The  innermost 
of  these  is  more  than  6  m.  long,  rather  narrow  and  almost  dark.  On  the 
outer  side  of  this  rcom  lie  two  others  which  formerly  possessed  an  upper 
story,  and  the  rafters  are  still  in  position,  and  projecting  out  a  foot  or  two 
where  they  probably  afforded  the  cliff-dwellers  a  hole  for  the  hand  in  pass 
ing  the  narrow  ledge  outside  the  wall.  East  of  these  two  rooms  lie  three 
more,  then  comes  a  long  open  space;  in  front  of  this,  along  the  ledge  a 
long  row  of  rooms  reached  by  climbing  up  to  the  upper  shelf,  a  few  holes 
having  been  hewn  by  the  Cliff-dwellers  in  the  sandstone  to  give  a  foothold 
and  to  make  the  ascent  less  difficult.  Behind  the  long  row  of  rooms  it  is 
possible  to  follow  the  free  inner  part  of  the  cave  all  the  way  to  the  eastern 
extremity  of  the  ruin.*  Outside  of  this  last-mentioned  series  of  rooms  lie 


FIG.  8.-  -RUINS   IN   NAVAJO    CANON. 

two  estufas.  and  below  these,  to  the  south,  a  series  of  rooms  on  the  lower 
level.  At  some  place  farther  east  the  cave  ends. 

The  walls  of  the  other  rooms  in  Long  House  are  constructed  in  the 
same  manner  as  in  the  town  first  described;  their  thickness  is  also  the 
same,  or  on  an  average  0,3  m.  The  dimensions  of  the  rooms  may  be  esti 
mated  at  2.2x2.5  m-  w'tri  a  height  of  about  2  m.  All  the  doorways  are 
small,  measuring  0.5x0  7  m.,  and  have  served  as  windows  as  well.  They  re 
semble  the  doorways  of  the  other  cliff-dwellings.  The  estufas  are  of  similar 
form  and  almost  the  same  size  everywhere.  They  never  have  an  upper 
story,  and  they  generally  lie,  when  the  nature  of  the  ground  permits,  with 
the  floor  sunk  lower  than  that  of  the  adjoining  rooms  of  the  ordinary  type. 

A  triangular  tower,  one  wall  of  which  is  formed  by  the  cliff,  and  which 
still  stands  to  its  full  height  of  four  stories,  is  a  most  interesting  feature  of 
the  place.  One  cannot  help  admiring  the  skill  with  which  it  has  been 
erected,  The  thickness  of  the  walls  is  about  3  m.  The  east  part  of  the 

*It  will  be  noticed  that  in  Jackson's  and  Holmes'  description  of  the  Cliff  House  in  the  Canon 
de  Chelly  that  a  narrow  passage  runs  parallel  to  the  edge  of  the  cliff,  but  back  of  the  houses,  to 
the  two-story  group  at  the  end.  The  whole  front  of  the  town  is  without  an  aperture  save  a  few 
small  windows,  perfectly  inaccessible. 


112  PRIMITIVP;  ARCHITECTURE. 

second  story  is  composed  of  a  niche,  the  roof  of  which  is  formed  of  sticks 
laid  across  the  opening,  covered  with  twigs  and  a  layer  of  mortar.  The 
floor  of  the  niche  is  pierced  by  a  narrow  passage  leading  to  an  estufa  hard 
by.  The  room  in  the  third  story  is  small,  and  the  upper  room  is  so  tiny  that 
it  is  impossible  for  a  human  being  to  gain  entrance. 

I  have  still  to  describe  one  part  of  Long-  House,  and  this  not  the  least  re 
markable.  About  14  m.  above  the  ruins  just  described,  in  the  overhanging 
v  ult,  are  t*"o  long,  narrow,  horizontal  shelves,  separated  by  the  smooth 
rock.  Along  the  edge  of  these  shelves  run  low  walls,  pierced  with  small 
loop-holes.  The  ledge  itself  was  quite  narrow,  the  rock  above  it  so  low 
that  one  had  to  creep  on  hands  and  knees.  The  wall  along  the  ledge  was 
only  i  m.  high  and  14  m.  long.  In  the  wall  we  found  fifteen  small  apertures 
only  a  few  inches  wide.  These  apertures  must  undoubtedly  have  been  loop 
holes  for  arrows,  and  were  skillfully  arranged  in  all  directions,  so  that  the 
archers  were  able  to  command  all  the  approaches  to  the  cliff  dwtlhng,  and 
could  discharge  a  formidable  shower  of  arrows  upon  an  advancing  enemy. 

A  few  words  in  reference  to  the  people  who  inhabited  the 
Cliff  Palace  will  be  appropriate  here.  It  will  be  understood 
that  no  survivor  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  has  ever  been  met,  and 
no  tribe  has  ever  been  discovered  with  reliable  traditions  as  to 
ever  having  occupied  the  territory.  The  only  evidence  is  fur 
nished  by  the  skulls.  It  may  be  said  here  that  recently  a  party 
has  explored  the  region  who  claim  to  have  found  a  very  ancient 
race  different  from  the  ordinary  Cliff-Dwellers.  Dr.  Birdsall 
also  says: 

"A  theory  prevails  in  Colorado,  which  the  writer  was  unable  to  trace 
to  its  originator,  that  three  distinct  races  inhabited  the  land:  the  mesa- 
dwellers,  with  perfect  skulls;  the  cliff-dwellers,  with  skulls  having  a  per 
pendicular  occipital  flattening;  and  the  valley-dwellers,  with  skulls  hav 
ing  an  oblique  occipital  flattenihg.  The  theory  is  based  on  the  fact  that 
different  shaped  skulls  have  been  found  at  these  different  situations.  The 
number  of  skulls  examined  under  the  writer's  observation  were  not  suffic 
ient  to  establish  much;  yet  he  saw  skulls  removed  from  the  mesa  mounds 
which,  contrary  to  the  theory,  were  both  horizontal  and  oblique  flattening. 
Tne  cliff  house  skulls  were  perpendicularly  flattened,  and  all  these  flattened 
skulls  were  symmetrical,  The  angle  and  plane  of  flattening  vary  in  differ 
ent  skulls,  so  that  it  may  be  readily  conceived  that  in  a  large  number  of 
skulls  we  might  find  intermediate  grades  from  the  perpendicular  to  the 
oblique  forms. 

"The  burial  mounds  on  the  mesa  contain  the  decayed  remains  of  human 
skeletons  in  abundance,  and  many  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation,  yet  noth 
ing  but  the  bones  remain  and  pieces  of  pottery  that  were  buried  with  the 
body,  these  usually  in  fragments.  When  the  attitude  can  be  determined, 
it  is  usually  the  flexed  position,  the  body  having  been  laid  on  the  side. 
Skeletons  are  also  found  buried  among  the  ledges,  where  occasionally, 
under  the  protection  of  some  large  mass  of  rock,  sufficient  earth  has  been 
retained  in  which  a  shallow  grave  could  be  excavated.  The  best  preserved 
human  remains  are  found  in  the  dry  material  under  the  cliffs." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  CLIFF  VILLAGES  AND  CAVE 

TOWNS. 

The  descriptions  which  have  been  given  of  the  ruined  houses 
in  the  valley  of  the  Chaco  and  of  the  San  Juan,  convinces  us  that 
at  one  time  there  abounded  a  large  population  which  had  been 
gathered  into  villages,  and  that  this  population  was  thoroughly 
organized  into  a  village  system  which  was- widely  distributed; 
each  village  being  the  home  of  a  clan,  which  had  its  own  chief, 
its  own  medicine  men,  or  priesthood,  and  its  own  ancestry;  the 
traditions  of  the  past  and  the  common  descent,  keeping  them 
together  throughout  all  the  changes  which  occurred. 

It  is  not  always  the  case  that  villages  can  be  identified  as  the 
residence  of  either  family,  clan  or  tribe,  yet,  as  a  general  princi 
ple,  we  may  say  that  the  clan  was  everywhere  the  unit,  and  that 
the  family  was  so  subordinate  to  the  clan  that  it  is  not  always  to 
be  recognized.  This  constitutes  the  chief  difference  between  the 
prehistoric  villages  and  the  historic,  for  in  the  historic,  the  family 
is  the  unit,  and  the  village  is  made  up  of  a  number  of  families, 
who  have  gathered  and  made  their  residence  in  one  locality 
under  the  protection  of  the  government,  without  regard  to  kin 
ship,  nearly  every  family  holding  property  in  severally.  In  pre 
historic  times,  villages  were  made  up  of  those  who  belonged  to 
the  same  clan  or  tribe,  and  were,  in  that  sense,  akin  to  one  another. 
The  land  was  held  in  common  by  either  the  clan  or  tribe,  the 
only  property  that  was  separate,  being  that  which  might  be  called 
personal  belongings.  There  was  a  change  in  many  countries 
about  the  time  of  the  opening  of  history,  at  which  time  the  tribal 
life  gave  way  to  the  civil  condition  and  property  began  to  be 
held  in  severalty,  or  was  in  the  control  of  the  ruling  classes. 

The  prevalence  of  village  life  among  certain  tribes,  even  to 
the  present  day,  is  very  noticeable.  There  are  tribes  in  India, 
especially  among  the  mountains  where  the  Dravidic  race  still 
continues,  in  which  the  clan  life  has  survived  and  the  people  live 
in  clan  villages,  each  village  ruled  by  a  chief  alone.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  tribes  of  Africa.  Here  the  villages  resemble  the 
conical  huts  or  wigwams,  common  in  America,  and  so  striking  is 
the  resemblance,  that  we  might  imagine  the  village  of  the  Zulus 
to  be  occupied  by  North  American  Indians. 

One  thing  is  noticeable,  in  connection  with  the  early  history 
of  this  country,  and  that  is  that  village  life  was  very  prevalent 
here,  for  the  early  explorers  are  constanly  describing  the  villages. 
Garcillaso  de  la  Vega,  speaks  of  the  villages  through  which 


ii4  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Ferdinan  de  Soto  passed,  some  of  which  were  surrounded  by 
large  fields  of  corn,  but  most  of  them  were  defended  by  stock 
ades. 

The  voyage  of  Jacques  Cartier  was  made  up  the  St.  Lawrence, 
but  the  terminating  point  was  at  the  village  of  Hochelega,  where 
Montreal  now  stands.  This  village  was  for  a  time  lost  to  sight 
and  perished  from  memory.  Owing  to  certain  excavations,  it 
was  brought  to  light  and  identified,  and  its  history  rewritten  by 
Sir  William  Dawson  from  the  monuments  and  remains,  as  well 
as  from  the  records  which  have  been  perserved.* 

Captain  John  Smith  has  described  the  Powhattan  villages  on 
the  James  river.  The  explorers,  Joliet,  Marquette,  Hennepin, 
and  La  Salle,  described  Indian  villages  near  Green  Bay,  Wis 
consin  ;  on  the  Des  Moines  in  Iowa,  and  on  the  Illinois  river, 
though  none  of  these  were  surrounded  by  any  stockade  or 
defense.  The  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,  which  were  visited  by 
Coronado  in  1536,  have  been  identified  as  the  pueblos  of  the 
Zunis,  which  were  nothing  but  villages  of  a  peculiar  kind. 

I.  The  point  which  most  interests  us,  is  that  the  village  system 
in  America  was  so  similiar  to  that  which  existed  in  other 
countries,  especially  among  the  uncivilized  tribes.  The  testi 
mony  of  all  travellers  is  to  the  effect  that  it  exists,  even  in  the 
interior  of  Russia.  Here,  old  customs  perpetuate  the  village 
community  and  land  tillage  which  prevailed  in  prehistoric  times. 
The  land  of  a  Russian  village  belongs  to  the  people  as  a  whole, 
and  not  to  individuals.  The  government  is  administered  by  vil 
lage  magistrates,  with  the  aid  of  a  council  of  elders.  They  are 
elected  by  the  people,  but  represent  the  patriarchal  system  so 
common  in  ancient  times. 

Patriarchy  was  also  common  in  America,  though  matriarchy 
was  the  system  which  characterized  most  of  the  tribes.  Among 
the  Cliff-Dwellers  and  Pueblos,  the  two  systems  were  in  existence 
and  were  strangely  blended  together,  the  descent  being  in  the 
line  of  the  mother,  and  the  care  of  the  household  and  even  the 
ownership  of  individual  property  being  held  by  the  women  ;  but 
defense,  government,  general  employment  and  support  of  the 
family  being  left  to  the  men. 

In  the  regions  where  there  was  a  struggle  for  existence  and 
necessity  for  defense  against  enemies,  or  a  combination  of  the 
people  for  securing  subsistence,  the  clan  life  was  especially 
strong,  and  the  village  became  very  prominent.  The  habitat  of 
the  Pueblos  and  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  was  of  this  character. 
Here,  the  very  aridity  of  the  soil,  caused  by  the  height  of  the 
land  and  the  constant  scarcity  of  rain,  rendertd  the  village  li!e 
almost  a  necessity.  It  was  a  region  by  itself,  isolated,  high  up, 

*See  "  Fossil  Men,"  by  Sir  William  Dawson. 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS.  115 

but  it  is  a  continent  which  has  a  limitless  sea  of  air  surrounding 
it,  and  is  a  great  distance  from  any  large  body  of  water.  It  is 
called  the  arid  region  because  the  climate  is  very  dry  and  the 
soil  very  barren,  the  rarity  of  the  air  producing  more  evapora 
tion  than  the  streams  can  counteract.  In  these  respects  the 
plateau  differs  greatly  from  the  Mississippi  Valley,  or  in  fact 
from  any  other  part  of  the  continent. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  however,  that  each  grand  division  of 
the  globe  has  an  air  continent  similar  to  this.  But  in  none  of 
them  has  there  been  a  development  of  human  life  such  as  ap 
peared  here.  It  is  said  that  Thibet  was  the  original  home  of  the 
human  race,  yet  very  few  prehistoric  works  have  been  discovered 
in  Thibet.  Central  Africa  contains  peculiar  peoples,  but  the 
works  which  are  found  in  that  region  are  comparatively  modern. 
The  great  plain  of  Iran  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  original  home 
of  the  civilized  races — from  this  isolated  center  the  Aryan  or 
Indo-European  race  migrated.  Some  have  supposed  that  this 
plateau  of  the  great  west  was  the  original  home  of  the  civilized 
races  of  America,  though  of  this  there  is  much  uncertainty. 
The  architecture  of  the  region  is  certainly  unique.  There  is 
nothing  like  it  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  structure  s  which 
are  found  here  are  not  only  numerous,  but  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  great  similarity  between  them,  and  so  we  ascribe  a  unity 
to  the  people  who  built  them. 

It  certainly  seems  singular  that  a  region  like  this  should  have 
been  so  thickly  populated  and  be  now  filled  with  so  interesting  a 
class  of  ruins,  though  once  so  desolate.  All  authorities  say  that 
the  ruins  are  situated  in  places  where  there  must  have  been  ex 
tensive  springs  and  perhaps  perennial  streams  of  water;  but  the 
springs  are  now  entirely  dry,  and  the  valleys  present  no  streams 
except  as  mountain  floods  occasionally  pass  through  the  deep 
canons.  The  most  interesting  part  of  this  region,  arcrueolog- 
ically  considered,  is  that  which  lies  to  the  west  of  the  great 
mountain  divide,  a  region  in  which  the  streams  all  flow  toward 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  These  streams  have  become  well  known  from 
the  presence  of  many  ruins  upon  their  banks,  as  well  as  from 
the  strange  scenery  which  is  represented. 

There  is  a  great  contrast  between  the  eastern  and  western  part 
of  the  mountains.  On  the  eastern  slope  are  found  those  many 
peaks  which  have  become  celebrated  for  their  grandeur  of  scenery 
— Pike's  Peak,  Mountain  of  the  Holy  Cross,  Elk  Mountains, 
Cathedral  Rocks,  etc.  On  the  western  side  we  come  to  the 
wonderful  regions  of  the  so-called  parks,  basins,  mesas,  table 
lands,  deep  canons,  and  great  lake  beds — a  region  which  was 
both  volcanic  and  sedementary  in  its  geological  system,  its  drain 
age  having  passed  through  several  changes  before  it  reached  the 
present  condition.  The  deep  canons  are  supposed  to  be  the  beds 
of  streams  which  are  as  old  as  the  hills,  the  first  drainage  having 


116  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

antedated  the  carboniferous  period,  but  a  second  drainage  pass 
ing  on  to  the  tertiary  period.  Here  is  found  the  valley  of  the 
Colorado  River,  a  river  which  flows  from  the  very  summit  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  but  which  traverses  three  great  States  in 
its  course  toward  the  southwest,  and  finally  flows  into  the  Gulf 
of  California.  Here  also  is  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  a  lake  which  re 
ceives  the  drainage  of  three  other  States,  but  which  has  no  out 
let  and  is  dependent  upon  evaporation  for  its  present  level.  Here 
also  is  the  series  of  great  lakes — Pyramid  Lake,  Lake  Tahoe— 
which  have  their  outlet  in  the  Humboldt  River,  and  which  form 
an  interesting  feature  in  the  scenery  of  Nevada.  The  same 
region  is  drained  to  the  north  and  west  by  the  Snake  River,  a 
branch  of  the  Columbia,  and  by  the  Yellowstone,  one  branch  of 
which  rises  in  the  famous  Yellowstone  Park.  The  region  of  the 
Pueblos  and  Cliff-dwellers  is  altogether  south  of  Yellowstone 
Park,  but  it  extends  from  the  mountains  of  Colorado  on  over 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  part  of  Utah,  and  ends  on  the  borders  of 
Mexico  and  California.  This  is  a  remarkable  fact.  The  Col 
orado  River  has  a  branch  which  enters  it  near  its  mouth — the 
Gila.  On  this  river  there  are  ruins  which  resemble  the  famous 
pueblos  of  the  Animas  and  the  San  Juan  in  Northern  Mexico. 
Not  very  far  from  this  same  river  a  race  of  Cliff-dwellers  has 
recently  been  discovered  which  resembles  the  famous  Cliff-dwell 
ers  of  the  same  rivers.  Throughout  Arizona  there  are  ancient 
canals  and  ancient  ruins  which  remind  us  of  the  irrigating  con 
trivances  and  ancient  villages  found  on  the  Pecos  and  in  other 
parts  of  New  Mexico.  Taken  together,  we  should  say  that  the 
discoveries,  early  and  late,  had  fixed  the  habitat  of  this  myste 
rious  people  in  a  very  singular  and  mysterious  region. 

Whether  this  fact  will  lead  us  to  connect  the  history  of  the 
people  with  the  ancient  race  which  left  their  relics  in  the  aurif 
erous  gravels  of  Table  Mountain,  or  with  the  more  modern  and 
more  civilized  Mexican  race,  remains  to  be  seen.  Still  the 
proximity  of  the  habitat  to  both  localities  may  prove  that  here 
is  a  connecting  link.  The  very  ancient  people  of  California  were 
certainly  more  advanced  than  the  modern  savage  Arapahoes, 
Navajoes,  etc.,  which  roam  over  the  same  region.  Yet  is  un 
known  what  the  descent  of  the  ancient  people  was. 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  population  the  united  testimony  proves 
that  it  was  very  great.  Maj.  Powell,  who  has  long  been  familiar 
with  it  and  has  often  traversed  the  region,  expresses  his  surprise 
at  seeing  nothing  for  whole  days  but  cliffs  everywhere  riddled 
with  human  habitations,  which  resembled  the  cells  of  a  honey 
comb  more  than  anything  else.  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  in  speaking 
ot  the  Hovenweep  (deserted  valley),  says  :  "  There  is  not  a  living 
stream  throughout  this  whole  region.  During  the  summer 
months  the  water  occurs  in  but  few  places  ;  the  rainy  season  is 
in  winter,  the  water  being  then  found  in  the  many  basins  scat- 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS.  117 

tered  over  the  mesas.  There  is  scarcely  a  square  mile  in  the 
six  thousand  examined  that  does  not  furnish  evidence  of  being 
the  previous  habitation  of  a  race  totally  distinct  from  the  no 
madic  savages  who  hold  it  now,  and  in  many  ways  superior  to 
them.  It  seems  strange  that  a  country  so  dry  and  apparently 
barren  could  have  supported  even  a  moderate  population.  It  is 
consequently  argued  that  the  climate  has  become  less  moist  since 
the  ancient  population."  He  says,  however,  that  "there  are  grass 
covered  meadows  and  broad  belts  of  alluvial  bottom  along  the 
water  courses,  affording  a  considerable  area  of  rich  tillable  land. 
The  rainfall  varies  in  different  parts.  In  Colorado  it  is  said  to 
be  less  than  a  foot  and  a  half.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the 
destruction  of  the  forests  by  the  Cliff-dwellers  themselves  may 
account  for  the  diminution  of  the  rainfall  and  for  the  aridity  of 
the  region."  The  scenery  here  is  grand,  but  nevertheless  very 
desolate.  Its  resources  are  deeply  hidden,  the  distances  are 
great  and  the  region  difficult  to  traverse.  Here,  separate  from 
all  others,  and  lonely  in  the  isolation,  there  grew  up  a  peculiar 
population  which  reached  a  high  grade  of  civilization.  It  is 
the  home  of  the  semi-civilized  race,  while  the  Mississippi  Valley 
was  the  home  of  the  uncivilized. 

The  great  plateau  presents  an  interesting  class  of  prehistoric 
structures,  as  interesting  as  any  found  on  the  face  of  the  globe. 
The  age  of  these  structures  is  unknown  The  probability  is 
that  they  were  not  all  of  the  same  age.  That  some  cf  them  are 
modern  no  one  will  deny,  but  that  some  of  them  were  ancient 
we  think  is  shown  by  the  facts.  One  argument  for  their  great 
antiquity  is  drawn  from  the  change  which  has  come  over  the 
climate.  Otherwise  there  is  a  mystery  about  the  sustenance  of 
so  numerous  a  population.  Mr.  Holmes  says  one  may  travel  for 
miles  in  the  parched  bed  ot  a  stream  and  not  find  a  drop  of 
water  anywhere.  In  the  greater  part  of  the  region  there  is  so 
little  moisture  that  the  vegetation  is  very  sparse,  yet  there  is 
bountiful  evidence  that  at  one  time  it  supported  a  numerous  pop 
ulation.  Labyrinthine  canons  ramify  the  plateaux  in  every 
direction  with  an  interminable  series  of  deep  and  desolate  gorges 
and  wide  barren  valleys. 

II.  We  turn  to  the  description  of  the  different  classes  of 
structures  which  were  found  in  the  great  plateau.  Here  we  draw 
from  an  article  which  has  recently  been  published  in  The  Forum 
from  the  pen  of  Maj.  J.  \V.  Powell:  "The  greatest  table  land 
oi  the  arid  region  is  the  Colorado  plateau,  lying  to  the  south  of 
the  most  stupendous  gorge  known  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  the 
Grand  canon.  The  summit  of  this  plateau  is  crowned  with  many 
extinct  volcanoes,  and  black  and  angry  looking  cinder  cones  are 
scattered  in  groups  or  stand  in  lines  throughout  the  region.  The 
general  surface  is  from  seven  thousand  to  eight  thousand  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  is  covered  with  pine  forests,  but 


US  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

nestling  in  the  sombre  woods  sunny  valleys  are  found,  and  above 
the  valleys  rise  the  black  cones  of  lava." 

1.  Here  we  find  one  class  of  ruins.     Sometimes  the  amphithea 
tre  of  a  dead  volcano  is  the  site  of  an  ancient  pueblo.     In  the 
ragged  cliffs  ugly  irregular  caves  are  found,  and  these  have  been 
walled  with  fragments  of  cinder,  so  that  above  the  cliffs  are  clus 
tered  curious  chambers  made  by  fires  long  extinct.     In  these 
ruins  no  strange  arts  are  found,  nor  do  they  bear  evidence  of 
great  antiquity.     We  know  that  a  tribe  now  living  in  Cataract 
canon  claims  to  have  formerly  occupied  one  of  the  crater  vil 
lages.     There  is  a  cone,  but  an  hour's  ride  from  the  foot  of  San 
Francisco  mountain,  which   is  composed  of  fine  volcanic  dust, 
scoria  and  large  blocks  of  ejected  matter.     On  this  the  ruins  of 
a  curious  little  pueblo  were  discovered.    On  the  top  there   is  a 
small  plaza  walled  with  cinder;  about  this  plaza  chambers  have 
been  built.     Shafts   were  sunk  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  depth, 
two  and  a  half  feet  to  three  and  a  half  feet  to  cross  section.    The 
chambers  are  below  the  surface.     The  ground  is   undermined, 
and  an  irregular  room  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  diameter,  and  five 
or  six  feet  in  heighth  is  found.     Around  this  central  room  two 
or  three  smaller  rooms  are  dug  out  of  the  ashy  rock.     About 
one  hundred  such  under  ground  dwellings  have  been  discovered, 
in  various  conditions  of  ruin.     They  have  all  been  carefully  ex 
amined,  and  the  stone  knives,  hammers,  mortars,  tools  of  bone 
and  horn,  fragments  of  baskets,  pieces  of  coarse  cloth,  all  prove 
that  these  people  had  arts  quite  like  those  of  the  Puebloes  and 
Cliff  dwellers.     Their  pottery  was  the  same;  they  raised  corn, 
ensnared  rabbits,  hunted  antelopes,  deer  and  elks  in  the  forests 
and  plains,  and  all  show  that  they  had  the  wel-lknown  culture  of 
the  general  region. 

2.  West  of  Santa  Fe,  in  New  Mexico,  and  beyond  the  Rio 
Grande  there  is  an  irregular  group  of  mountains  and  high  plateaux 
known  as  the  Tewan  Mountains.     Here  in  some  ancient  times  a 
succession  of  volcanoes  burst  out.  Sometimes  they  poured  forth 
molten  lava,  but  oftener  threw  high  into  the  air  enormous  quan 
tities  of  cinder  and  ashes.     These  fell  and  buried  the  sheets  of 
lava,    and    were    themselves    covered    with    molten  rock.     The 
rivers  that  head  on  these  mountains  and  run  down  into  the  Rio 
Grande,  have  cu<-  down  through  the  alternating  layers  of  liva  and 
tufa  many  deep  and  winding  picturesque  canons,  and  here  we 
have  another  class  of  dwellings.    The  tufa  is  sufficiently  hard  to 
stand  in  vertical  cliffs,  and  yet  so  soft  that  it  can  be  worked  with 
great  ease  by  the  use  of  stone  tools.     There  are  many  miles  of 
these  tufa  cliffs,  and  into  them  thousands  of  chambers  have  been 
hollowed.     Such  a  chamber  is  entered  by  a  narrow  door-way 
three  or  four  feet  high.   Within  a  chamber  is  found  ten  or  twelve 
feet  square,  four  to  six  feet  in  height,  and  more  less  irregular  in 
form.     About  this  two  or  more  smaller  chambers  are  found,  t  ¥ 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS.  ll'j 

whole  forming  a  suite  of  apartments.  A  few  feet  further  along 
on  the  face  of  the  cliffs  another  such  suite  may  be  found,  some 
times  two  or  more  suites  connected  by  interior  passages.  The 
chambers  are  often  irregularly  situated,  one  above  another,  and 
the  face  of  a  cliff  presents  many  such  openings.  Here  and  there 
are  rude  stairways  hewn  in  the  soft  rock,  by  which  the  dwellings 
are  reached  with  more  or  less  difficulty.  These  are  the  "cavate" 
dwellings  of  the  Tewan  mountains.  Though  at  first  supposed  to 
be  very  ancient,  research  proves  that  many  of  them  are  quite 
modern,  having  been  occupied  since  the  Spanish  settlement  by 
a  people  owing  sheep,  goats,  asses  and  horses.  The  more  an 
cient  give  evidence  of  having  been  occupied  by  people  having 
arts  identical  with  other  pueblo  tribes. 

3.  On  the  long  narrow'  plateaux  that  stand  between  the  deep 
canons  running  down  into  the  Rio  Grande  there  are  many  pueb- 
loes  in  ruins,  which  were  made  of  blocks  of  the  same  tufa,  which 
is  easily  worked  with  stone  tools.     The  blocks  vary   from  ten 
to  twelve  inches  in  length,  are  usually  eight  inches  in  breadth, 
and  from  four  to  six  inches  in  thickness.  They  were  laid  in  clay 
mortar.     Each  communal  dwelling  or  pueblo  \vas  a  cluster  of 
small  irregular  rooms  covered  with  poles,  brush  and  earth.     Va 
rious  Tewan  tribes  claim  these  as  their  original  homes. 

4.  In  the  southwest  portions  of  the  United  States,  conditions 
of  aridity    prevailed.     The  forests  are  few  and  found   only  on 
great  altitudes,  on  mountains  and  plateaux  where  deep  snow  ap 
pears,  and  frosts  often  blasts  the  vegetation  in  summer.     Such 
forest-clad  lards  were  not  attractive  homes,  and  the  tribes  lived 
in  the  plains  and  valleys  below,  while  the  highlands  were  the 
hunting  grounds.     The  arid  lands  below  were  often  naked    of 
vegetation,  but  in  the  ledges  and  cliffs  that  stand   athwart  the 
lands  and  in  the  canon  walls  that   enclose    the    streams    were 
everywhere  quarries  of  loose  rock,  lying  in  blocks  ready  for  the 
builder's    hand.     Hence,    these    people    learned    to  build    their 
dwellings  of  stone.     They  had  large    communal  houses,  even 
larger  than  the  structures  of  wood  made  by  the  Mound-builders. 
Many  of  these  stone  puebloes  are  still  occupied. 

5.  There  are  ruins  scattered  over  a  region  embracing  a  little 
of  California  and  Nevada,  and  far  southward.     These  ruins  are 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands    in  number.     Many   of  these 
were  built  thousands  of  years  ago,  but  they  were  built  by  the 
ancestors  of  existing  tribes,  or  their  congeners.  A  careful  study 
of  these  ruins  for  the  last  twenty  years  demonstrates  that  the 
pueblo  culture  began  with  rude  structure  of  stone  and  brush, 
until  at  the  time  of  the  exploration  of  the  country  by  the  Span 
iards,  in  1540,  it  had  reached  its  highest  phase.     The  Zuni  has 
been  built  since  and  it  is  the  largest  and  best  village  ever  estab 
lished  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States  without  the  aid 
of  ideas  derived  from  civilized  men.     Not  all  the  valleys  of  the 


320  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

arid  region  are  supplied  with  the  loose  stone,  and  so  a  few  tribes 
of  the  region  learned  to  construct  their  homes  of  other  material. 
They  built  them  of  grout  adobe  in  this  manner:  For  the  con 
struction  of  a  wall  they  drove  stakes  into  the  ground  in  two  par 
allel  lines,  two  or  three  feet  apart.  They  then  wove  willows,  or 
twigs,  or  boughs  through  the  stakes  of  each  line,  so  as  to  make 
a  wicker  work  box,  and  between  the  sides  of  this  box,  or  be 
tween  the  walls,  they  place  a  stiff  mixture  of  clay  and  gravel.  In 
this  way  they  built  many  houses,  sometimes  great  assembly 
houses,  similar  in  purpose  to  those  used  by  the  Mound-builders. 
The  Casa  Grande  of  Arizona  is  one  of  these.  The  people  were 
agriculturists.  They  cultivated  the  soil  by  the  aid  of  irrigation, 
and  constructed  some  interesting  hydraulic  works.  The  most 
important  of  these  are  found  in  the  valley  of  the  Gila.  These 
remarks  by  Major  Powell  are  very  interesting.  They  are  con 
firmed  by  other  explorers.  We  here  give  cuts  which  are  taken 
from  articles  furnished  by  Mr.  F.  W,  Gushing  and  others. 

III.  We  now  turn  to  a  description  of  the  cliff-dwellings,  some 
times  called  cave-dwellings  and  sometimes  cliff-dwellings. 

i.  Let  us  consider  the  caves  as  such.  It  is  noticeable 
that  while  there  are  habitations  resembling  the  cave- dwellings 
scattered  all  over  the  continent,  yet  the  cliff-dwellings  them 
selves  are  confined  to  one  particular  or,  at  most,  to  two  definite 
localities,  the  majority  of  them  being  found  in  the  valley  of  one 
particular  stream  or  river,  namely,  the  Colorado  and  its  tribu 
taries — the  Rio  Doloroso,  the  San  Juan,  the  Rio  Mancos,  and 
the  LaPlata.  This  is  a  region  which  is  celebrated  for  its  deep 
canons  and  its  precipitous  cliffs  and  its  desolate  scenery.  It  is 
just  such  a  region  as  we  could  expect  to  find  abounding  with 
caves — the  model  home  of  the  Cave-dwellers.  There  are  cave- 
dwellings  in  America  as  there  are  in  Europe,  but  these  generally 
belong  to  the  later  part  of  the  paleolithic  age,  cr  to  the  earlier 
part  of  the  neolithic  age.  There  is,  however,  a  great  difference 
between  them  and  the  cliff-dwellings  about  which  we  are  speak 
ing.  In  fact,  all  the  difference  that  would  exist  between  the 
earlier  part  of  the  stone  age  and  the  later  part.  There  is  a  whole 
age  between  the  two.  In  Europe  we  have  the  caves  which  con 
tain  the  bones  of  extinct  animals — the  mastodon,  the  cave  bear 
and  the  rhinocerous.  After  them  came  the  reindeer  period. 
This  was  followed  by  the  kitchen  middens;  after  the  kitchen 
middens  came  the  barrows,  after  the  barrows  came  the  Lake- 
dwellers,  and  after  the  Lake-dwellers  came  the  rude  stone  monu 
ments. 

Originally  the  cave-dwellings  belonged  to  a  period  which 
antedated  the  kitchen  middens,  and  so  would  be  classed  with 
the  paleolithic  age;  but  there  are  so  many  caves  in  this  country 
which  were  manifestly  neolithic  that  we  must  place  them  in 
that  age,  but  assign  them  to  different  periods  in  that  age. 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS.  121 

There  are  cave-dwellings  in  many  parts  of  America,  some 
being  found  as  far  north  as  Alaska,  where  they  are  associated 
with  shell  heaps;  others  in  the  Mississippi  valley,  where  thev 
are  closely  connected  with  the  mounds;  others  in  the  midst  of 
the  canons  of  Colorado  and  Arizona,  where  they  are  associated 
with  structures  resembling  the  pueblos;  others  in  the  central 
regions  on  the  coasts  of  Lake  Managua,  in  Nicaragua,  and  still 
others  in  the  valley  of  the  Amazon  in  South  America.  These 
last  have,  however,  been  classed  with  the  paleolithic  age,  as  it 
is  claimed  that  animal  bones  and  other  remains  of  the  quater 
nary  period  are  found  in  them.  The  caves  are  also  scattered 
over  various  parts  of  Europe,  some  of  them  being  classed  with 
the  paleolithic  and  some  with  the  neolithic  age.  In  a  general 
way  we  should  say  that  caves  were  the  abodes  of  man  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  paleolithic  and  the  early  part  of  the  neo 
lithic  age,  though  it  is  evident  that  some  of  them  were  occupied 
through  the  whole  prehistoric  period  and  even  far  down  into 
the  historic  period. 

Caves  are  not  to  be  classed  with  monuments,  yet  as  they  have 
been  associated  with  various  kinds  of  monuments  and  have 
produced  all  kinds  of  relics,  we  have  to  give  to  them  a  broad 
space  in  the  horizon,  classing  some  of  them  with  the  old  stone 
age,  others  with  the  new  stone  .age,  and  even  placing  some  in 
the  bronze  and  the  iron  age.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the 
division  of  the  paleolithic  age  is  based  altogether  on  the  con 
tents  of  the  caves  and  that  the  names  are  derived  from  the 
caves,  the  Chelleen,  the  Mousterien,  the  Solutrien,  and  the 
Madalenien  caves  all  having  yielded  relics  which  have  been 
divided  in  this  way  and  which  have  given  rise  to  the  subdi 
visions  of  the  paleolithic  age.  As  to  the  place  which  we  are 
to  assign  the  cave-dwellers  of  America  in  the  order  of  succes 
sion,  ihis  for  the  present  is  uncertain,  as  each  author  is  influenced 
by  his  own  discoveries,  and  no  general  system  has  been  adopted. 
We  give  here  the  names  of  a  few  of  the  archaeologists  who 
have  treated  of  the  cave-dwellers:  First,  we  would  mention 
Mr.  William  H.  Ball.*  He  has  described  the  caves  of  Alaska; 
he  says  that  there  were  here  three  periods,  first,  that  of  the 
so-called  littoral  people,  a  people  which  is  to  be  classed  with 
the  paleolithic  age;  second,  that  of  the  cave-dwellers,  a  people 
who  were  in  the  neolithic  state,  and,  third,  that  of  the  hut- 
makers,  a  people  who  might  have  left  monuments.  Next  to 
him  is  Prof.  F.  W.  Putnam,  who  has  described  the  caves  in 
Tennessee.  These  contained  the  tokens  of  a  neolithic  charac 
ter,  though  it  is  uncertain  whether  the}'  preceded  the  mounds 
or  were  contemporaneous  with  them. 


*Wm  H  Dall  "Remains  of  Later  Prehistoric  Man  from  the  Caves  of  the  Catherine 
Archipelago,  Alaska  Territory,"  Smith,  con..  1878.  Prof.  M.  C.  Read  on  Rock  Shelter 
in  Ohio,  Amer.  Antiquarian,  March,  1880.  Hald-man,  Rock  Retreat  near  Chickies, 
Penn.  Whittlesey  on  Rock  Shelter  at  Elyria,  Ohio.  Putnam  on  Salt  Cave  and 
Short's  Cave  in  Tennessee. 


122  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Dr.  Earl  Flint  is  another  author  who  has  written  upon 
the  caves.  He  claims  that  there  are  caves  in  Nicaragua  which 
were  very  ancient,  how  ancient  he  hardly  undertakes  to  tell. 
Dr.  Flint's  discoveries  have  not  been  confirmed.  It  does  not 
seem  likely  that  inscriptions  of  the  kind  described  by  him 
could  have  been  wrought  by  a  people  preceding  the  neolithic 
age,  and  therefore  we  should  be  inclined  to  place  this  cave  in 
that  age.  This  leaves  then  only  one  single  locality  for  the 
paleolithic  cave-dweller,  namely,  that  spoken  of  by  Prof.  Lund 
as  found  in  Brazil,  a  locality  which  M.  Nadaillac  has  described  at 
some  length. 

We  give  cuts  which  will  illustrate  the  point.  In  one  figure 
we  have  a  cave  of  the  paleolithic  age.  It  was  discovered  by  Dr. 
Goldfusse  in  Isio.  It  proved  that  man  occupied  caves  when 
bears,  hyenas  and  other  extinct  animals  were  common  in  Europe. 
The  next  cut  shows  a  cave  of  the  neolithic  type.  It  is  the 
cave  in  Alaska  described  by  Mr.  William  H.  Dall. 

2.  Next  to  these  are  the  cliff-dwellings  of  Arizona  and  Col 
orado.  The  most  of  these  are  known  to  be  so  much  more 
advanced  than  ordinary  caves  as  to  be  classed  with  the  monu 
ments  of  a  higher  grade.  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes  speaks  of  caves 
in  Colorado  which,  he  thinks,  were  very  ancient,  so  ancient,  in 
fact,  that  the  rock  which  formed  their  openings  has  worn  en 
tirely  away,  leaving  them  now  as  mere  shelters  or  nooks  in  the 
cliff.  The  cliff-dwellers,  of  course,  are  to  be  placed  with  the 
neolithic  age,  and  at  an  advanced  part  of  that  age,  probably  the 
same  part  which  was  occupied  by  the  Pueblos  of  the  same 
region. 

These  have  been  described  by  Mr.  Holmes.  The  watch  towers 
above  show  that  they  were  occupied  by  a  people  of  an  advanced 
class.  See  Plate  III.  He  thinks  that  some  ot  these  caves  were 
very  ancient,  as  the  mouths  or  openings  have  worn  away  since 
they  were  occupied,  leaving  the  former  habitations  without 
walls  to  protect  them. 

This  is  an  important  point,  and  yet  the  presence  of  'the  estufas 
or  towers  above  the  cliffs  give  the  impression  that  they  were  not 
so  very  ancient.  It  is  possible  that  the  people  dwelt  in  these 
enclosures  on  the  summit,  using  the  tower  both  for  an  outlook 
and  an  estufa,  but  that  in  times  of  danger  they  fled  from  their 
houses  and  went  down  the  cliffs  into  the  caves,  enduring  expos 
ure  for  the  time  for  the  sake  of  protection.  This  is  an  interest 
ing  locality.  It  is  situated  on  the  San  Juan  River.  The  cliffs 
here  are  only  thirty-five  to  forty  feet  in  height.  The  ruins  are 
three  in  number,  one  rectangular  and  two  circular.  Each  one  of 
them  is  placed  over  a  different  group  of  cave-dwellings,  ose  to 
the  edge  of  the  mesa.  About  one  hundred  and  fifty  yard  s  to  the 
southwest  of  this  ruin  are  the  remains  of  another  similar  struc 
ture.  It  is  built,  however,  on  a  much  grander  scale;  the  walls 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS. 


]23 


are  twenty-six  inches  thick,  and  indicate  a  diameter  of  about  one 
hundred  and  forty  feet.  The  first  impression  was  that  it  was 
designed  for  a  corral,  and  used  for  the  protection  of  herds  of 
domestic  animals.  This  would  prove  that  it  was  a  modern  work 

and  not  an  ancient  one.  Mr.  Holmes 
says  that  they  both  belong  to  the  com 
munity  of  Cave-dwellers  and  served  as 
their  fortresses,  council  chambers  and 
places  of  worship.  These  would  seem 
to  be  reasonable  and  natural  inferences. 
Being  on  the  border  of  a  low  mesa 
country  that  rises  toward  the  north, 
strong  outside  walls  were  found  nec 
essary  to  prevent  incursions  from  that 
quarter,  while  the  little  community,  by 
means  of  ladders,  would  pass  from 
dwelling  to  temple  and  fortress  with 
out  danger  of  molestation.  See  Plate 
IV.  Mr.  Holmes  describes  another 
Fig.  3.  cave-dwelling  situated  on  the  Rio 

Mancos  cancii.  An  outstanding  promontory  was  honeycombed 
by  this  earth-burrowing  race.  Window-pierced  crags  were  visi 
ble,  which  contained  towers  upon  the  very  summits.  Other 
openings  were  walled,  leaving  windows  or  doors  into  the  side  of 
the  precipice,  the  apertures  being  scarcely  large  enough  to  allow 
a  person  of  large  stature  to  pass.  He 
says  that  one  is  led  to  suspect  that 
these  nests  were  not  the  dwellings 
proper  of  these  people,  but  occasional 
resorts  for  women  and  children.  The 
somewhat  extensive  ruins  in  the  valley 
below  were  their  ordinary  dwelling 
places.  He  speaks  of  the  round  tow 
ers,  and  says  they  are  very  numerous 
in  the  valley  of  the  Mancos.  He  vis 
ited  and  measured  seven  in  fifteen 
miles  along  the  course  of  this  stream. 
In  dimensions,  they  range  from  ten  to 
sixteen  feet  in  diameter  and  two  feet 
in  thickness.  They  are,  in  almost 
every  case,  connected  with  other 
structures,  mostly  rectangular  in  form. 
In  this  respect  they  resemble  the 
square  and  circle  which  are  found 
in  the  Mound-builders' works  in  the  Fig.  \. 

Ohio  valley.  The  Rio  Mancos  canon  is  30  miles  in  length,  and 
ranges  from  1,000  to  2,000  feet  in  depth.  It  seems  to  have  been 
a  favorite  resort  of  the  cliff-building  people,  and  traces  of  their 


124 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE, 


industry  may  be  found  everywhere  along  the  bottoms,  on  the 
cliffs  and  on  the  high  dry  table  lands  above.  He  refers  to  wall 
ing  up  the  cave  front,  and  gives  several  illustrations.  A  sketch 
of  one  on  the  Rio  Mancos  is  given  in  the  cut,  Fig.  3.  The 
group  occurred  in  the  cliff,  about  thirty  feet  from  the  base.  The 

three  doorways  opened  into 
as  many  small  apartments, 
but  these  were  connected 
with  each  other  by  very 
small  passage-ways.  He 
speaks  also  of  a  cozy  little 
dwelling  which  was  hidden 
away  in  a  weather-worn 
cavity  in  a  massive  crag. 
See  Fig,  5.  This  was  sit 
uated  not  far  from  a  great 
tower  which  he  discovered 
on  an  isolated  spot  in  the 
midst  of  the  valley  and  near 
the  trail.  A  rude  little  fire 
place  was  observed  in  con 
nection  with  the  cliff-house 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
canon.  See  Fig.  6.  It  is 
the  only  example  discov 
ered.  There  seem  to  be  no 
traces  whatever  of  fire 
places,  ovens,  furnaces,  or  chimneys  about  any  of  the  ruins 
except  this.  The  walled-up  caves  on  the  Rio  Mancos  canon  may 
be  compared  to  the  cave-dwellings  and  towers  on  the  Rio  San 
Juan.  In  this  case  the  towers  are  below  the  cliff — in  the  valley 
instead  of  on  the  summit.  We  give  two  other  specimens  of 
these  cliff-houses.  These  were  also  found  on  the  Rio  Mancos. 
They  have  been  described  by  Mr.  W. 
H.  Jackson.  See  Figs.  4  and  7. 

The  round  towers  are  worthy  of  no 
tice.  Some  of  these  are  isolated,  but 
some  of  them  are  connected  with  rect 
angular  buildings.  We  give  two  cuts 
to  illustrate  these.  Fig.  9  gives  a  plan 
of  the  double  tower  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mancos;  Fig.  10 
occurs  about  eight  miles  above  the  foot  of  the  canon  ;  it  is  nine 
feet  in  diameter  on  the  "inside  and  about  sixteen  feet  high.  There 
are  three  rectangular  apartments  attached.  This  cut  illustrates 
one  method  of  defense  and  shows  the  uses  which  were  made  of 
some  of  the  towers.  There  were  no  windows  or  openings  within 
reach  of  the  ground,  but  being  built  in  connection  with  dwellings 
thep  could  be  reached  from  within  these,  and  be  secure  from 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THEIR  WORKS. 


125 


without.  A  large  circular  tower  is  described  by  Mr.  Holmes. 
It  was  situated  in  the  canon  of  the  Mancos  on  a  narrow  strip  of 
alluvial  bottom.  The  diameter  of  the  outer  wall  is  forty-three 
feet,  that  of  the  inner  twenty-five  feet.  The  outside  courses  have 
been  dressed  to  the  curve,  and  the  imple 
ments  used  must  have  been  of  stone.  The 
space  between  the  walls  was  divided  into 
cells.  The  main  walls  are  twenty-one 
inches  in  thickness,  but  the  partition  walls 
are  somewhat  lighter.  The  walls  were  twelve 
feet  high  when  discovered.  The  circle 
seems  to  have  been  divided  into  ten  cells. 
There  were  no  indications  of  windows  or 

doors  in  the  out 
er    walls.       En 
trance  was  made 
by  means  of  lad- 
ders  through 
high  windows  or 
by    way    of   the 
roof.  There  were 
openings    be 
tween    the    cen 
tra  1     enclosure 
and  the  cells,  but 
these  were  high  up.     The  one  that  remains  entire  is  six  feet  from 
the  ground,  and  measures  two  feet  in  width  by  three  in  height. 
The  lintel  is  a  single  slab  of  sandstone,     That  this  ruin  is  quite 
ancient  is  attested  by  the  advanced  stage  of  decay.     There  were 
no  buildings  in  connection   with   the  ruin,  but  on  the  point  of  a 


J)i'ain 


Fig. 


Fig.  10 . 

low  rock  or  promontory  that  extends  down  from  the  mesa  to 
within  a  few  rods  of  the  circular  rnin,  are  some  masses  of  decay 
ing  wall  and  a  large  circular  depression.  This  tower  was  prob 
ably  the  estufa  for  the  houses  which  were  situated  in  the  sides 
of  the  cliff  to  be  described. 

The  position  of  this  ruin  is  one  of  almost  unparalleled  secur- 


123 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE 


ity.     The  almost  vertical  cliff  descends  abruptly  from  the  front 
wall,  and  the  immense  arched  roof  of  solid  stone  projects  forward 

fifteen  or  twenty  feet  beyond 
the  house.  Running  water 
was  found  within  a  few  yards 
of  the  groups  of  houses  just 
described.  There  were  evi 
dences  of  fire,  the  walls  and 
ceilings  of  one  of  the  rooms 
being  blackened  with  smoke. 
The  small  rooms  were  used 
for  storage,  and  a  qnantity  of 
beans  was  taken  from  one  and 
grains  of  corn  from  another. 

Another  group  of  cliff- 
dwellings  was  situated  about 
a  mile  farther  up  the  canon. 
It  was  exceedingly  difficult  of 


mg.ll.— Two-Story  Cliff  1  louts 

access,  beine  situated  in  the  cliffs 


above 


14. 


about    seven   hundred    feet 
It  is  a  two-story  building.     The  one 


Fig.  1-2. — Ground  Plan. 

remarkable  feature  of  the  house  is  the  consummate  skill  with 
which  the  foundations  are  laid  and  cemented  to  the  sloping  and 

overhanging    facffcs  of    the   ledge.       Mr.      r-^=\ >* — 

Holmes  says  that  although  the  building 
seems  complete,  and  had  windows  and 
doors  conveniently  and  carefully  ar 
ranged,  the  plastering  of  the  interior  is 
almost  untouched,  and  there  is  scarcely 
any  trace  of  the  presence  of  man.  The 
plaster  may  have  been  applied  only 
shortly  before  the  final  desertion.  Mr. 
Jackson  says:  Among  all  dwellers  in 
mud-plastered  houses  it  is  the  practice  to 
freshen  up  their  habitations  by  repeated 

applications  of  clay,  moistened   to  the  proper  consistency,  and 
spread  with  the  hands.     Every  such  application  makes  a  building 


CLIFF  VILLAGES  AND  CAVE  TOWNS.  127 

appear  perfectly  new,  and  many  of  the  best  sheltered  cave  houses 
have  this  appearance,  as  though  they  were  but  just  vacated.  The 
plaster  does  not  differ  greatly  from  common  mortar.  It  is 
lightly  spread  over  the  walls,  probably  with  the  hands,  and  in 
color  imitates  very  closely  the  hues  of  the  surrounding  cliffs,  a 
pleasing  variety  of  red  and  yellow  grays.  Whether  this  was  in 
tended  to  add  to  the  beauty  of  the  dwelling  or  to  its  security  by 
increasing  its  resemblance  to  the  surrounding  cliffs,  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  determine." 

The  extraordinary  situation  of  these  houses  is  shown  in 
the  cuts  on  pages  82  and  93,  but  tne  arrangement  of  the  rooms, 
the  appearance  of  the  plaster,  the  shape  and  construction  of  the 
doors  and  the  position  of  the  semicircular  tank  outside  of  the 
house,  are  shown  in  the  cuts  on  the  page  opposite,  Fig  12; 
A,  B  and  c  representing  the  ground  floor,  and  D  the  cistern. 

Another  group  of  rock  shelters  is  described  by  Mr.  Jackson: 

They  were  situated  on  a  ledge  about  two  hundred  feet  long  and  six  feet 
deep,  but  resemble  cubby  holes.  At  first  they  seemed  as  if  they  might  be 
caches,  but  the  evidences  of  fire  showed  that  they  had  been  quite  constantly 
occupied.  There  was  a  row  of  these  rock  shelters,  doors  through  the 
dividing  walls  afford'.ng  a  passage,  the  whole  length  of  the  ledge.  Another 
group  of  three  small  houses,  each  about  five  feet  wide  and  ten  feet  long, 
with  doors  through  the  end  walls,  was  seen  situated  about  sixty  feet  above 
the  trail.  Still  another  group  was  found  on  the  Rio  San  Juan,  consisting  of 
an  open  plaza,  with  three  rows  of  apartments  surrounding  it.  These  are 
propably  parts  of  disintergated  villages,  the  towers  and  estufas  being  in 
the  valley  below. 

Mr.  Jackson  has  also  described  what  he  calls  the  Echo 
Cave.  His  description  is  as  follows  : 

It  is  situated  twelve  miles  below  the  Montezuma.  The  bluff  here  is 
about  two  hundred  teet  in  height;  the  depth  of  the  cave  was  one  hundred 
feet.  The  houses  occupy  the  eastern  half  of  the  cave.  The  first  building  was 
a  small  structure,  sixteen  feet  lon^,  three  to  four  feet  wide.  Next-came  an 
open  space  eleven  feet  long  and  nine  feet  deep,  probably  a  work-shop. 
Four  holes  were  drilled  into  the  smooth  rock,  six  feet  apart,  probably 
designed  to  hold  the  posts  for  a  loom,  showing  that  the  people  were  familiar 
with  the  art  of  weaving.  There  were  also  grooves  worn  into  the  rock  where 
the  people  had  polished  their  stone  implements.  The  ma;n  building  comes 
next,  fortv-eight  feet  long,  twelve  feet  high,  ten  feet  wide,  divided  into  three 
rooms,  with  lower  and  upper  story,  each  story  being  five  feet  high.  There 
were  holes  for  the  beams  in  the  walls,  and  window  like  apertures  between 
the  rooms,  affording  commun:cation  to  each  room  of  the  second  story, 
There  was  also  one  window  in  each  lower  room,  about  twelve  inches  square, 
looking  out  towaid  the  open  country;  and  in  the  upper  rooms  several  small 
apertures,  of  not  more  than  three  inches  wide,  were  pierced  through  the 
w.tlls,  hardly  more  than  peep  holes  [loop  holes].  The  walls  of  a  large 
biiildiiii?  continued  in  an  unbroken  line  130  feet  further,  with  an  averaec 
height  of  eight  feet.  The  space  was  divided  into  eleven  apartments,  with 
communicating  apertures  between  them.  The  first  room  was  9^  feet  wide, 
the  others  dwindled  gradually  to  onlv  four  feet.  The  rooms  were  of 
uneq  lal  length,  the  following  being  the  inside  measurements:  \2l/2  feet, 
gl/2  feet.  8  feet,  jl/2  feet,  9  feet,  10  feet.  8  feet.  7  feet,  7  feet,  8  feet,  31  feet. 
The  ledge  runs  then  50  feet  further,  gradually  narrowing,  while  another 
wall  occurs  crossing  it,  after  which  it  soon  merges  into  the  smooth  wall  of 
the  cave.  The  first  of  the  rooms  had  an  aperture  large  enough  to  crawl 
through,  leading  outward;  all  the  others  of  which  there  were  about  two  to 


128 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


each  room,  were  mere  peep  holes*  [loop  holes]  about  three  inches  in 
diameter  and  generally  pierced  through  the  wall  at  a  downward  angle. 

In  the  central  room  of  the  main  building,  we  found  a  circular  basin-like 
depression,  thirty  inches  across  and  ten  inches  deep,  that  had  served  as  a 
hre-place,  being  still  filled  with  the  ashes  and  cinders  of  aboriginal  fires. 
The  surrounding  walls  were  blackened  with  smoke  and  soot.  This  room 
was  undoubtedly  the  kitchen  of  the  house;  some  of  the  small  rooms 
seem  to  have  been  used  for  the  same  purpose,!  the  fires  having  been  made 
in  the  corners  against  the  wall,  the  smoke  escaping  overhead. 

The  masonry  displayed  in  the  construction  of  the  walls  is  very  credi 
table.  A  symmetrical  curve  is  preserved  throughout  the  whole  line,  and 
every  portion  perfectly  plumb;  the  subdivisions  are  at  right  angles  to  the 
front,  the  stones  are  roughly  broken  to  a  uniform  size.  More  attention 


ECHO  CAVE  ON  THE  SAN  JUAN. 

seems  to  have  been  paid  to  securing  a  smooth  appearance  upon  the  exterior 
than  the  interior  surfaces,  the  clay  -cement  being  spread  to  a  perfectly 
plain  surface,  something  like  a  modern  stucco  finish.  On  jhe  inner  walls  of 
some  of  the  subdivisions,  the  impression  of  the  hands,  and  even  the  delicate 
lines  of  the  thumbs  and  fingers  of  the  builders,  were  plainly  retained;  in 
one  or  two  cases,  a  perfect  mould  of  the  whole  inner  surface  of  the  hand 
was  imprinted;  they  were  considerably  smaller  than  our  hands,  and  were 
probably  those  of  women  or  children.  In  the  mortar  between  the  stones, 
several  corn  cobs  were  lound  imbedded,  and  in  other  places,  the  whole  ear 
of  corn  had  been  impressed  in  the  clay.  The  ears  were  quite  small  and 

*  These  peep  holes  or  loop  holes  in  the  walls  show  that  Echo  Cave  was  used  as  a  fortress,  as 
well  as  a  village  residence,  the  so-called  loop-hole  forts  and  the  living  rooms  being  here  com 
bined. 

t  The  fire-places  in  these  rooms  show  that  the  people  weie  accustomed  to  keep  the  fires 
burning  through  the  cold  winter  months,  the  same  as  did  the  inhabitants  of  Cliff  Palace  and 
other  places. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  CLIFF  VILLAGES.  229 

none  more  than  five  inches  long.  The  whole  appearance  of  the  place  and 
its  surroundings  indicates  that  the  family,  or  liitle  community,  who  inhabited 
it  were  in  good  circumstances  and  the  lords  of  the  surrounding  country. 
Looking  out  from  one  of  their  houses,  with  a  great  dome  of  solid  rock  over 
head,  that  echoed  and  re  echoed  every  word  uttered  with  marvellous  dis 
tinctness,  and  below  them  a  steep  descent  of  100  feet  to  the  broad,  fertile 
valley  of  the  Rio  San  Juan,  covered  with  waving  fields  of  maize  and  scat 
tered  groves  of  majestic  cottonwoods,  these  old  people,  whom  even  the 
imagination  can  hardly  clothe  with  reality,  must  have  felt  a  sense  of  security 
that  even  the  incursions  of  their  barbarian  foes  could  hardly  have  disturbed. 
Five  miles  above  the  Canyon  Bonito,  Chelly  expands  into  a  wide 
valley  that  extends  with  only  slight  interruptions,  to  the  foot  of  the  Canyon 
de  Chelly,  at  the  northern  end  of  the  Tunicha  Mountains.  It  is  bordered 
by  IOAT  but  abrupt  sandstone  bluffs,  which  have  been  broken  into  isolated 
monuments  in  some  places,  that  stand  like  huge  sentinels  upon  either  hand, 
as  if  to  warn  the  traveller  from  the  desolation  surrounding  him.  Although 
the  bluffs  contain  numerous  great  circular  caves,  favorite  building  places 
of  the  ancient  builders,  we  find  only  two  or  three  ruins  of  that  kind,  and 
these  only  in  the  lower  end  of  the  valley,  the  last  we  noticed  being  about 
eight  miles  above  the  Canyon  Bonito.  This  was  the  largest  and  most  im 
portant  one  in  this  vicinity,  occupying  a  large  cave  very  similar  to  the  one 
of  the  San  Juan,  divided  into  twelve  or  fifteen  rooms,  with  a  large  corral  or 
court,  and  an  elevated  bench  on  one  side,  with  a  low  wall  running  around 
its  front  edge.  This  had  been  occupied  by  the  Navajoes  for  corraling  their 
sheep. 

The  most  interesting  villages  are  those  situated  in  the 
Canon  de  Chelly.  Mr.  Jackson  speaks  of  one  particular  village 
and  has  given  a  plate  illustrating  the  situation  of  the  village 
and  of  the  houses  belonging  to  it.*  He  says: 

This  cave-town  occurs  in  a  great  bend  of  the  encircling  line  of  bluffs, 
and  is  perched  upon  the  recess  bench,  about  seventy  feet  above  the  valley. 
It  is  overhung  by  a  solid  wall  of  massive  sandstone  extending  up  over  200 
feet  higher.  The  left  side  of  the  bench  supporting  the  building  sweeps 
backs  in  a  sharp  curve,  about  eighty  feet  under  the  bluff,  and  then  gradu 
ally  comes  to  the  front  again.  The  total  length  of  the  town  is  545  feet,  the 
width  is  in  no  place  greater  than  forty  feet.  There  are  somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood  of  seventy-five  rooms  upon  the  ground  plan.  Midway  in  the 
town  is  a  circular  room,  which  was  probably  intended  for  an  estufa.  Start 
ing  from  this  estufa  is  a  narrow  passage,  running  back  of  the  line  of  houses 
on  the  left  to  the  two-story  group,  where  it  ends  abruptly;  further  access 
being  had  through  the  lower  rooms,  or  over  the  roofs.  At  the  extreme  left 
hand,  a  still  higher  ledge  occurs,  where  there  was  a  space  reserved  as  an 
out-of-door  working  room.  All  the  buildings  are  of  one  story,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  group  A,  the  residence,  probably,  of  the  chief.  The  rooms 
back  of  it  were  the  store-rooms,  where  the  corn  and  squashes  were  put 
away.  Near  the  store-rooms  are  two  half-round  enclosures  of  stone-work, 
remains  of  reservoirs  or  springs.  The  front  line  of  the  wall  of  this  end  of 
the  town  is  built  upon  the  slope  of  the  rocks,  with  the  interior  of  the  apart 
ments  filled  up  with  earth,  so  as  to  make  their  floors  level,  bringing  them  a 
little  below  the  passage-way.  The  whole  front  of  this  portion  of  the  town 
is  without  an  aperture,  save  some  small  windows,  and  is  perfectly  inacces 
sible.  Admittance  was  gained,  near  the  circular  building  in  the  centre,  by 
ladders. 

Going  to  the  right  from  the  estufa,  you  have  to  climb  up  about  eight 
feet  to  a  narrow  ledge.  Here  the  buildings  are  built  irregularly  over  the 
uneven  surface,  each  house  conforming  to  the  irregularities,  but  presented 
the  general  arrangement  of  clusters  about  central  courts.  They  may  have 

*See  Hayden's  Report  United  States  Survey  (1876),  page  422 


230 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


served  as  corrals.*  Some  of  the  rooms  were  quite  large,  from  fifteen  to 
twenty-five  feet  in  length.  The  very  small  rooms  surrounding  them  were 
probably  for  storage,  and  in  some  cases  answer  the  purpose  of  fire-places 
for  baking  pottery.  All  the  doorways  and  windows  open  from  within  the 
courts,  and  were  unusually  large.  The  walls  are  from  six  inches  to  a  foot 
in  thickness.  The  stones  of  which  the  walls  are  built  are  long,  thin  slabs 
laid  in  an  abundance  of  adobe  mortar.  Most  of  the  rooms,  insi  de  and  out 
side,  have  been  smoothly  plastered  with  clay.  At  the  foot  of  the  bluff,  on 
a  low  bench  about  ten  feet  above  the  level  of  the  valley,  are  the  indications 
of  old  buildings  and  burial  places.  Chipped  flint  works,  arrow-points,  per 
forators,  knives,  and  domestic  utensils  were  found,  also  seven  large  earthen 
pots  of  indented  ware,  and  a  handsome  little  jug  or  vase. 

On  the  McElmo  and  on  the  Montezuma  Canon,  north  and 
west  of  the  Bonito,  a  large  number  of  small  cliff-villages  have 
been  discovered.  Several  of  these  have  been  discovered  by 
Mr.  Lewis  W.  Gunckel  and  Mr.  Warren  K.  Moorehead. 
They  are  situated  in  canons  called  Cold  Spring,  Eagles  Nest, 
Monarch  Cavern,  Cottonwood  Gulch,  Giants'  Cave,  Hawks' 

Nest  Cave,  and 
Butlers  Wash.  In 
each  of  these,  there 
is  a  wall  running 
near  the  edge  of  the 
cliff,  with  an  enclos 
ure  back  of  it,  con 
taining  a  spring  of 
water,  an  open  area 
and  an  estufa  at  the 
end  of  the  ledge, 
showing  that  it  was 
a  cliff-village. 

Other  cliff-dwell 
ings  on  the  Rio  de 
Chellyf  have  been 
described  elsewhere  in  this  volume.  The  most  notable  village 
is  the  one  represented  in  the  plate  J  and  called  Casa  Blanca,  or 
White  House. §  This  is  the  ruin  seen  by  Lieutenant  Simpson 
in  1849.  The  following  in  the  description: 

In  its  present  condition  it  consists  of  two  distinct  parts,  the  lower  part 
comprising  a  large  cluster  of  rooms  on  the  bottom  land  against  the  vertical 
cliff,  and  the  upper  part,  which  is  much  smaller,  occupying  a  cave  directly 
over  it,  and  being  separated  from  it  by  a  distance  of  only  thirty-five  feet  of 
vertical  cliff.  There  is  evidence,  however,  that  some  of  the  houses  in  the 
lower  pueblo  were  lour  stories  high  and  that  the  structures  were  practically 
continuous.  The  lower  ruin  covers  an  area  of  about  150  by  50  feet.  With 
in  this  area  there  are  remains  of  forty-five  rooms  on  the  ground  and  a  cir 
cular  kiva.  On  the  east  side  the  walls  are  still  standing  to  the  height  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  feet.  It  is  probable  that  the  lower  ruin  comprised  about 

*  Some  of  th«se  corrals  disclosed  a  solidly  packed  bed  of  old  manure,  very  nearly  resolved 
into  dust,  through  which  were  scattered  twigs  of  willow  and  fragments  of  pottery.  This  shows 
that  the  chff-dwelhng  was  occupied  by  the  Navajoes,  and  that  their  flocks  of  sheep  were  kept  in 
the  apartments. 

fSee  pages  204,  240,  323  and  324. 

JSee  page  228,  and  compare  with  cliff-house  on  page  205. 

§The  cut  on  page  284  represents  the  ruins  called  Mummy  Cave,  instead  of  White  House 
The  wrong  title  is  given  to  the  cut. 


CLIFF   VILLAGE    IN   COLD   SPRING   CAVE. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  CLIFF  VILLAGES.  231 

sixty  rooms,  which,  with  the  ruins  in  the  cave,  would  make  a  total  of  eighty. 
The  principal  room  in  the  upper  ruin  is  situated  nearly  in  the  centre  ot  the 
cave.  The  walls  are  two  feet  thick,  constructed  of  stone,  twelve  teet  high 
in  front,  seven  feet  high  at  the  sides.  The  exterior  was  finished  with  a  coat 
of  white-wash,  with  a  decorative  band  of  yellow.  Two  rooms  on  the  east 
and  two  on  the  west  are  wholly  of  adobe.  Near  the  centre  of  the  main 
room  there  is  a  well-finished  doorway,  T  shaped.  The  back  rooms  must 
have  been  reached  by  a  ladder  in  front.  The  cliff  entrance  was  a  narrow 
opening  left  in  the  front  wall. 

There  is  another  region  where  cliff-dwellings  arc  numerous, 
viz.:  in  the  Walnut  Canon,  eight  miles  from  Flagstaff.  The 
following  is  the  description  given  by  Mr.  Higgins,  of  the  Santa 
Fe  Railroad: 

On  the  southeast,  Walnut  Canyon  breaks  the  plateau  for  a  distance  of 
several  miles,  its  walls  deeply  eroded  in  horizontal  lines.  In  these  recesses, 
floored  and  roofed  bv  the  more  enduring  strata,  the  cliff  dwellings  are  found 
in  great  numbers  walled  up  on  the  front  and  sides  with  rock  fragments  and 
partioned  into  compartments. 

Fixed  like  swallows'  nests  upon  the  face  of  a  precipice;  approachable 
from  above  or  below  only  by  deliberate  and  cautious  climbing,  these  dwell 
ings  have  the  appearance  of  fortified  retreats,  rather  than  habitual  abodes. 
That  there  was  a  time,  in  the  remote  past,  when  warlike  peoples  of  mysteri 
ous  origin  passed  southward  over  this  plateau  is  generally  credited.  And 
the  existence  of  the  cliff-dwellings  is  ascribed  to  the  exigences  of  that  dark 
period,  when  the  inhabitants  of  the  plateau,  unable  to  cope  with  the  superior 
energy,  intelligence,  and  numbers  of  the  descending  hordes,  devised  these 
unassailable  retreats.  All  their  quaintness  and  antiquity  can  not  conceal 
the  deep  pathos  of  their  being,  for  tragedy*  is  written  all  over  these  poor 
hovels,  hung  between  earth  and  sky.  Their  builders  hold  no  smallest  niche 
in  recorded  history.  Their  aspirations,  their  struggles,  and  their  fate  are 
all  unwritten,  save  on  these  crumbling  stones,  which  are  their  sole  monu 
ment  and  meager  epitaph.  Here  once  they  dwelt.  They  left  no  other  print 
or  line. 

At  an  equal  distance  to  the  north  of  Flagstaff,  among  the  cinder-buried 
cones,  is  one  whose  summit  commands  a  wide,  sweeping  view  of  the  plain. 
Upon  its  apex,  in  the  innumerable  spout-holes  that  were  the  outlet  of 
ancient  eruptions,  are  the  cave-dwellings,  around  many  of  which  rude  stone 
walls  still  stand.  The  story  of  these  inhabitants  is  likewise  wholly  conjec 
tural.  They  may  have  been  contemporary  with  the  cliff-dwellings.  That 
they  were  long  inhabited  is  clearly  apparent.  Fragments  of  shattered 
pottery  lie  on  every  hand. 

Another  region  where  cliff-dwellings  are  numerous  is  situated 
far  to  the  south  of  the  Pueblo  territory,  in  an  extensive  moun 
tainous  country  which  can  be  called  a  continuation  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  in  northern  Mexico.  It  used  to  be  the  favor 
ite  haunt  of  the  Apache  Indians,  and  is  now  seldom  visited  by 
the  Mexicans,  who  are  entirely  paralyzed  by  the  memories  of 
terror  and  blood-shed  and  for  fear  of  the  roaming  bands  which 
are  constantly  invading  the  region  and  keeping  alive  the  fear 
ful  traditions  of  the  past. 

These  now  solitary  regions,  Mr.  Lumholtz  says,  "  were  once 


In  one  on  Acowiu  Canyon  were 
In  a  room 


*Thr  same  is  true  of  the  cliff-dwellings  on  the  San  Juan  In  one  on  Acowiu 
several  skeletons  which  showed  that  the  Cliff-Dwellers  had  met  with  a  violent  death. 
which  had  only  one  entrance,  and  that  from  the  top,  probably  an  estufa,  four  persons  had  been 
killed  wfth  stone  axes.  Their  skulls  had  been  broken  in.  They  had  attempted  to  escape  by  the 
opening  or  cHmney.  One  man's  legs  were  in  the  chimney  and  his  trunk  in  the  fire-place;  his 
hands  and  arms  were  in  the  room. 


232  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

inhabited  by  races  of  whom  history  as  yet  knows  nothing. 
Many  mountain  ruins  are  everywhere  found,  consisting  of 
square  buildings,  generally  of  stone,  but  occasionally  of  clay 
and  plaster,  which  caused  them  to  look  white  at  a  distance. 
Deserted  pueblos,  consisting  of  square  stone  houses,  are  gen 
erally  found  on  top  of  the  hills  and  mountains,  surrounded  by 
fortifications  in  the  shape  of  stone  walls."  He  says  further: 

There  are  some  very  remarkable  caves  in  Cave  Valley  on  Piedras 
Verdes  River.  On  one  stretch  of  twenty  miles  I  counted  some  fifty  caves 
or  cliff-dwellings.  They  are  all  made  in  natural  caves  and  cliffs.  Some  of 
these  contain  small  villages,  or  groups  of  houses,  which  are  well  built, 
showing,  that  the  inhabitants  attained  a  comparatively  high  culture.  The 
rock  formation  is  porphyry,  which  has  disintegrated  into  a  dust  which  in 
some  cases  covers  the  floor  of  the  cave  up  to  the  knee. 

The  cave  extends  from  100  to  200  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  canyon, 
6  8so  feet  above  the  sea  level.  The  openings  vary  from  twenty  to  fifty  feet 
in  height,  and  the  depth  in  one  cave  reached  140  feet.  In  the  deepest  caves 
the  houses  were  built  at  the  entrance,  while  in  the  smaller  ones  they  were 
found  at  the  back.  The  most  noticeable  feature  of  these  structures  is  that 
the  walls  are  about  a  foot  and  a  half  thick,  and  present  a  solid  surface  as 
much  as  eight  feet  in  height,  all  of  one  piece,  and  white-washed. 

In  one  cave  we  found  thirteen  coats  of  white-wash  on  the  walls,  from 
which  we  inferred  that  the  dwelling  had  been  inhabited  for  a  long  period  of 
time.  This  was  the  finest  and  most  interesting  of  all  the  caves  we  visited, 
It  contained  a  whole  village,  and  at  its  entrance  we  were  amazed  to  come 
upon  a  gigantic  balloon-shaped  vessel,  twelve  feet  in  height,  and  twelve  feet 
in  diameter,  with  a  three-feet  wide  opening  at  the  top.  The  Mexicans 
called  it  an  "olla,"  and  insisted  that  it  was  a  water  jar;  but  I  believe  that  it 
was  built  for  the  storage  of  grain,  and  openings  symmethically  made  in  the 
sides  of  the  vessel,  as  well  as  a  hole  three  feet  high  at  its  base,  favor  this 
hypothesis.  The  framework  of  this  "  olla  "  was  composed  of  coils  of  grasF- 
ropes,  plastered  inside  and  out  to  the  thickness  of  about  eight  inches,  with 
the  same  porphyry  pulp  of  which  the  d  selling  themselves  are  oonstructed. 
The  interior  of  the  vessel  was  as  fresh  as  though  it  had  been  .made  a  week 
ago. 

Some  ten  miles  higher  up,  in  the  Strawberry  Valley,  we  met  with  some 
more  very  interesting  cave-  or  cliff  dwellings.  These  structures  were 
similar  to  those  mentioned  above;  one,  however,  presented  the  anomaly  of 
being  circular  in  shape.  Some  were  fortified  and  turned  into  almost  im 
pregnable  strongholds,  and  one  was  protected  by  an  outside  gallery. 


CLIFF    VILLAGE    IN    SIERRA    MADRE,    MEXICO. 


BALLOON-SHAPED    STORAGE    CIST. 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE.  133 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLINGS   OF  THE  CANONS  OF  THE 
MESA  VERDE.* 

We  have  in  the  preceding  chapter  treated  of  the  habitat  of  the 
Cliff-dwellers,  and  have  given  a  general  description  of  their  loca 
tion  and  distribution.  We  now  give  an  account  of  the  Cliff- 
dwellers  of  a  particular  district.  This  account  is  all  the  more 
valuable  from  the  fact  that  it  is  furnished  by  one  who  has  visited 
the  region  and  studied  its  geographical  and  geological  features, 
and  made  special  note  of  the  architectural  and  archaeological 
peculiarities.  We  commend  the  article  for  its  specific  descrip 
tions  and  for  the  illustrations,  which  were  taken  on  the  spot. 

The  Mesa  Verde,  in  whose  canon  cliffs  and  caves  an  ancient 
race  have  left  their  architectural  remains,  is  a  plateau  in  south 
western  Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  Its  boundaries  are  roughly 
defined  on  the  east  by  a  ridge  or  so-called  "hog's-back,"  which 
slopes  toward  Cherry  Creek  and  the  Rio  La  Plata,  on  the  south 
by  the  erosion  valley  of  the  Rio  San  Juan,  on  the  west  by  the 
erosion  district  beyond  Aztec  Spring  Creek,  and  on  the  north 
by  the  Montezuma  valley,  or  plain;  properly,  the  McElmo  val 
ley.  It  rises  from  1,000  to  2,000  feet  above  its  base,  which  has 
an  altitude  above  the  sea.  of  from  7,000  to  8,000  feet.  The 
canon  of  the  Rio  Mancos  completely  divides  this  plateau  into 
two  unequal  portions,  as  it  extends  first  southward,  then  south- 
westward,  and  finally  in  a  more  westerly  direction,  leaving  to  the 
southwest  an  irregular  quadrangle,  whose  area  is  probably  about 
300  square  miles.  It  is  to  this  portion  that  special  attention  is 
called,  as  it  was  here  that  the  writer's  observations  on  cliff-dwell 
ings  were  chiefly  made.  Its  drainage  is  toward  the  Mancos,  and 
erosion  has  produced  such  an  extensive  system  of  canons 
through  it,  that  it  is  now  the  mere  skeleton  of  a  mesa  and  a 
perfect  labyrinth  of  gorges.  Each  of  these  lateral  canons  of  the 
Mancos  has  its  branches  and  their  subdivisions,  which  extend  in 
many  cases  almost  to  the  great  northern  wall  of  the  mesa  that 
faces  the  Montezuma  plain ;  so  that  the  whole  interior  consists 
of  a  series  of  tongues  of  flat-topped  mesa,  green  with  scrub-oak, 
pinon  and  cedar,  running  out  from  a  rim  or  base  upon  its  north 
ern  border,  forming  partition  walls  of  varying  width  between 


*Thls  chapter  is  a  reprint  from  the  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society 
of  1892,  and  was  written  by  W.  K.  Birdsall,  M.  D.,  who  visited  the  region  in  the  year 
1891,  and  took  photographs  of  the  ruins. 


134  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

canons  of  enormous  depth,  whose  yellow  sides  rise  perpendicu 
larly  from  the  steep -sloped  talus  at  the  base.  Huge  promon 
tories  of  rock  jut  boldly  out  where  canons  subdivide,  some 
carved  into  -strange  fantastic  forms,  others  squarely  built  as  if 
abutments  for  giant  bridges  to  span  the  chasms  which  they  limit. 
The  views  seen  in  journeying  through  these  canons,  while  ever 
varying  in  minor  details,  soon  become  monotonous  from  the 
continued  repetition  of  the  greater  features.  We  pass  promontory 
after  promontory,  canon  after  canon,  which  so  much  resemble 
each  other  that  the  mind,  failing  to  keep  the  preceding  variations 
before  it,  becomes  bewildered  and  fatigued.  Again,  the  mesa, 
to  the  uninitiated,  is  a  perfect  maze;  so  great  are  the  resem 
blances  between  the  different  branches  of  the  canons  and  between 
the  promontories  that  separate  them.  From  some  point  of  view 
whence  a  great  area  of  the  mesa  can  be  overlooked,  it  appears  as 
if  the  earth  had  been  split  into  innumerable  fissures,  as  the  eye 
courses  over  the  indistinct  outlines  of  canon  beyond  canon  in  the 
distance. 

These  canons  are  all  the  work  of  erosion  in  horizontally  strat 
ified  rocks  of  cretaceous  formation,  chiefly  sandstone.  The 
upper  strata  form  an  escarpment  of  yellowish  sandstone,  harder 
than  the  lower  strata  and  about  200  feet  in  thickness.  Directly 
below  it  are  much  softer  sandstones  and  shales  which  have 
eroded  more  rapidly  in  some  places  than  in  others,  giving  rise 
to  shallow  caverns  or  galleries  formed  by  the  overhanging  cliff 
of  harder  rock  as  a  roof;  while  lower  strata,  that  have  also  been 
resistant,  form  the  floor,  which  is  usually  much  narrower  than 
the  roof,  varying  from  a  few  feet  up  to  fifty  or  sixty,  while  the 
overhanging  cliff  may  project  from  a  few  feet  to  more  than  a 
hundred  beyond  the  back  wall  of  the. gallery.  Below,  the  wall 
of  rock  drops  off  abruptly,  or  by  an  irregular  series  of  narrow 
ledges,  for  hundreds  of  feet  down  to  the  talus  slope.  The  height 
of  the  galleries  above  the  bottom  of  the  valley  varies  from  500 
to  1,500  feet.  They  vary  in  size  from  mere  niches  of  a  few 
cubic  feet  capacity  to  galleries  more  than  a  thousand  feet  in 
length  and  fifty  feet  in  height  and  width. 

On  these  narrow  ledges,  at  these  dizzy  heights,  under  these 
overhanging  walls,  the  cliff-dwellers  fastened  their  houses  of 
stone  to  the  rocks  like  so  many  swallows'  nests.  The  question 
is  often  asked:  Why  did  they  build  so  high  ?  They  built  where 
they  found  caverns  in  which  to  build.  Although  lower  strata 
exhibit  many  of  these  caverns,  they  are  far  less  numerous  and 
extensive  than  those  under  the  great  escarpment  rock.  • 

The  canon  bottoms  are  cut  up  with  the  "wash"  of  former 
streams,  benches  have  been  excavated  in  the  talus,  and  innumer 
able  lateral  arroyos  intersect  the  longitudinal  stream-beds.  Part 
ially  disintegrated  masses  of  rock  add  roughness  to  the  view. 
Tall,  coarse  grasses,  rushes,  sage-brush,  tangled  vines,  willow 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE.  135 

and  cotton-wood,  make  up,  chiefly,  the  vegetation  of  these 
bottoms  ;  while  upon  the  higher  slopes  a'nd  ledges,  the  scrub-oak 
grows  in  such  profusion  that  some  of  these  canon  walls  at  a 
distance  appear  richly  clad  in  verdure.  Indeed,  it  is  this  bright- 
leafed  oak,  rather  than  the  darker  pinon  and  cedar  of  the  mesa 
proper,  that  give  it  the  verdant  appearance  which  must  have 
suggested  the  name  "Mesa  Verde." 

These  canons  end  mostly  in  amphitheatres  which  were  favorite 
sites  for  cliff-towns.  In  some,  the  mesa  level  was  reached  by  a 
series  of  benches  and  intervening  slopes,  while  others  slope 
gradually  to  the  mesa,  or  produce  a  valley  in  it.  Some  of  these 
valleys  extend  so  far  to  the  north  that  they  give  to  the  northern 
face  of  the  mesa  a  serrated  appearance.  Few  canons  have  water 
in  them  except  after  showers  or  the  melting  of  snow.  The  waters 
of  the  few  permanent  streams  are  alkaline  and  usually  unfit  for 
man  or  beast  to  drink.  A  spring  is  a  treasure  rarely  found  in 
the  canons,  but  hollows  worn  in  the  rocks  become  filled  by  rain 
or  melted  snow  and  furnish  the  chief  supply  to  the  travellers 
upon  the  mesa.  Some  of  these  rock  excavations  are  quite  large 
and  receive  the  name  of  "tanks." 

It  was  the  writer's  good  fortune  to  visit  the  region  thus  briefly 
described  under  the  guidance  of  Richard,  Alfred  and  John 
Wetherill  during  the  summer  of  1891,  for  recreation  rather  than 
for  the  purpose  of  systematic  archaeological  study.  For  several 
years  these  men  have  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  the  explora 
tion  of  this  region  in  search  of  cliff-houses  and  the  relics  they 
contain;  although  not  professed  archaeologists,  they  have  amassed 
a  very  large  collection  of  the  remains  of  the  cliff-dwellers  and 
are  in  possession  of  a  vast  number  ot  observations  and  facts 
concerning  them.  Indeed,  no  one  knows  this  part  of  the  Mesa 
Verde  as  they  do.  The  upper  end  of  the  Mancos  Canon  is  the 
usual  place  which  tourists  visit  to  see  a  lew  examples  of  cliff- 
houses,  and  the  hospitable  Wetherill  ranch  is  the  proper  outfit 
ting  place. 

Jackson  and  Holmes,  whose  contributions  constitute  almost 
the  only  attempt  at  scientific  literature  on  the  subject  of  cliff- 
dwellings,  described  the  ruins  in  the  Mancos  Canon,  but  their 
observations  did  not  extend  to  the  interior  region  described  in 
this  article.  In  these  branch  canons  of  the  Mancos,  however, 
the  ruins  are  far  more  numerous  than  in  the  main  canon ;  a  dis 
covery  of  the  Wetherills,  who  informed  me  that  they  have 
examined  between  200  and  300  villages  or  separate  groups  of 
houses,  in  an  area  ot  less  than  twenty  by  forty  square  miles.  The 
greater  part  of  these  are  in  the  lateral  canons.  This  region,  now 
so  desolate,  was  once  a  well-peopled  area.  While  journeying  in 
the  saddle  through  the  Mancos  Canon  or  its  wider  branches  oc 
casionally  mounds  are  met  with,  many  strewn  with  pits  of  pot 
tery,  others  exhibiting,  upon  slight  excavation,  the  remains  of 


136  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

adobe  or  stone  walls,  some  quadrangular,  some  circular.  The 
base  of  a  distant  cliff  may  reveal  a  small  water-worn  recess, 
showing  the  remains  of  a  wall  of  stone  which  closed  it  in  front 
— the  so-called  "  cave  houses".  Looking  along  the  high  canon 
walls  in  search  of  cliff-houses,  the  inexperienced  observer  is  apt 
to  look  in  vain.  He  sees  every  variety  of  shade  and  color  in 
the  great  yellow  and  brown  rocks,  projecting  masses  of  every 
form,  shadows  of  overhanging  cliffs  and  the  dark  recesses  below 
them ;  but  until  he  has  become  familiar  with  the  somewhat  paler 
yellow  of  the  artificial  walls  and  their  rectangularly  notched 
appearance  he  is  apt  to  pass  them  by  even  after  a  careful  search. 
On  spying  one  of  these  structures  a  thousand  feet  or  more  above, 
the  p'roblem  asserts  itself:  How  did  the  occupants  get  up  to 
them?  It  is  finally  resolved  by  the  answer:  They  did  not,  they 
came  down  to  them  from  above.  The  level  mesa  top  was  within 
one  or  two  hundred  feet  of  them;  the  canon  bottom  perhaps 
more  than  a  thousand  feet  below,  hundreds  of  which  might  be 
perpendicular  or  unsurmountable.  When  built  at  lower  levels, 
or  at  the  end  of  a  canon  where  the  slopes  permitted,  paths  and 
steps  leading  below  are  occasionally  found,  but  in  most  instances 
the  path  and  steps  lead  from  the  house  up  to  the  mesa,  not 
down  to  the  bottom.  The  explorer  must  adopt  the  same  method 
if  he  would  work  to  advantage.  He  must  reach  the  mesa  some 
how,  and  establish  himself  there  as  his  base  for  operations.  It 
is  only  at  a  few  favored  points  that  it  is  possible  to  reach  the 
top  from  the  canon  below ;  such  places  may  have  been  known 
to  the  ancient  cliff-dwellers,  they  certainly  are  known  to  the 
Navajoes  and  Utes,  whose  trails  here  and  there  serve  to  indicate 
a  way  to  the  top.  Some  broken  down  promontory  usually  affords 
the  conditions.  Zigzagging  across  the  talus  slope,  the  ledges 
are  finally  reached,  and  the  horseman  is  glad  to  leave  the  saddle 
and  lead  or  drive  his  pony  over  the  rough  and  nearly  upright 
path,  around  bold  promontories  with  but  a  narrow  ledge  for  a 
footing  and  across  great  fissures,  forcing  him  to  jump  from  ledge 
to  ledge.  The  top  reached,  the  saddle  resumed,  then  comes  a 
ride  across  the  level  or  rolling  mesa  at  better  speed.  Dodging 
under  and  around  the  branches  of  low  pinon  and  cedar  trees  which 
form  a  sparse  forest,  clattering  every  now  and  then  over  mounds 
strewn  with  pottery — the  mesa  burial  grounds — in  time  a  place 
for  camping  is  reached,  It  must  be  where  water  can  be  had. 
A  natural  excavation  in  the  rock,  to  which  led  a  gullied  slope 
that  directed  water  when  it  rained,  held  a  few  barrels  of  muddy 
liquid  and  served  us  at  one  of  our  camps.  Leading  down  to  it 
were  well-worn  steps  cut  in  the  solid  rock. 

In  hunting  for  cliff-houses  from  the  mesa,  some  projecting 
point  will  furnish  an  outlook  up  or  down  the  canon  and  may 
expose  to  view  some  group  of  houses.  To  find  the  way  down 
to  them  is  a  matter,  often,  of  careful  searching.  Usually  at  some 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE.  137 

point  of  depression  where  the  ledges  are  broken,  a  narrow  way 
will  be  found.  Yet  there  are  instances  where  a  broad  and  royal 
path  sweeps  down  around  the  half  circle  of  an  amphitheater  to 
the  ledges  on  which  the  town  was  built.  Though  steps  and 
niches  cut  in  the  solid  rock  are  frequent,  examples  of  a  regu 
larly  laid  stairway  are  rare ;  we  observed  one,  however,  consist 
ing  of  fifty  or  sixty  steps,  each  formed  of  a  heavy  block  of 
stone,  so  well  placed  that  they  have  resisted  the  ravages  of  time 
better  than  the  walls  of  the  large  cliff-town  to  which  they  led, 
now  almost  completely  demolished.  Sometimes  the  houses  are 
absolutely  inaccessible;  portions  of  the  cliff  have  fallen,  ledges 
have  crumbled  away,  cutting  off  all  access  to  what  may  have 
once  been  an  easily  reached  dwelling.  Ropes  and  poles  are 
useful  accessories  to  the  explorer  if  he  has  the  courage  and  the 
skill  to  use  them.  Fragments  of  notched  poles  and  other  ladder 
like  arrangements  have  occasionally  been  found,  which  probably 
made  many  places  accessible  that  are  now  out  of  reach.  Some 
times  it  is  necessary  to  let  one's  self  down  for  a  considerable 
distance  through  great  fissures.  In  the  side  walls,  niches  are 
often  found  to  facilitate  the  descent  and  ascent.  Again,  the  only 
way  is  over  the  sloping  or  rounded  face  of  some  smooth  rock  ; 
here  also  niches  for  the  hands  and  feet  are  not  unfrequently  seen. 
They  are  not  deep,  perhaps  the  rock  has  worn  and  left  them 
shallower  than  when  first  cut,  yet  they  give  a  foothold,  though 
it  be  a  perilous  one.  The  path  may  be  continued  by  narrow 
ledges  a  few  inches  in  width  where  the  side  wall  must  be  closely 
hugged  to  maintain  equilibrium.  Then,  possibly  a  succession  of 
giant  steps  to  lower  ledges  intervene,  and,  finally,  as  we  round  a 
point,  a  great  cliff  curves  upward  and  under  its  deep  shadow,  on 
the  ledges  below,  rise  the  ruins  of  a  cliff-town. 

No  description  of  a  single  cliff-house  can  give  a  correct  idea 
of  them  as  a  class,  so  greatly  do  they  vary  in  size,  form  and 
location.  As  in  every  community  we  have  many  grades  of 
architecture,  from  the  hovel  to  the  palace,  so  here  we  find  a  great 
range  in  the  different  features  of  construction;  from  the  little 
"  cubby-hole"  walled  up  in  a  corner  of  the  rocks  to  the  remains 
of  what  appears  to  have  been  a  stately  tower  or  an  extensive 
communal  house.  Yet  they  all  have  certain  features  in  common. 
They  are  built  of  blocks  of  sandstone,  broken  or  cut  in  regular 
shapes,  laid  in  a  cement  of  adobe  and  chinked  with  small  frag 
ments  of  stone.  The  rock  material  used  was  that  of  the  adjoin 
ing  cliffs,  large  masses  of  which  fallen  from  above  were  usually 
at  hand  and  sufficiently  soft  and  fragile  to  have  been  easily 
worked  with  the  stone  implements  found  in  the  houses.  The 
blocks  of  stone  vary  greatly  in  size,  though  many  walls  are 
faced  up  with  stones  about  a  foot  long,  eight  wide  inches  and  six 
thick;  others  are  double  or  triple  this  size;  some  are  cubical  in 
shape,  while  in  many  of  the  inferior  structures  the  pieces  of 


138  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

stone  are  irregular,  of  many  sizes  and  shapes,  with  adobe  plas 
tered  into  the  interstices  to  fill  out  the  deficiences.  In  the  more 
perfect  and  substantial  buildings,  however,  the  walls  exhibit 
great  regularity  of  form  and  compactness  of  construction  with 
as  true  a  face  as  is  shown  by  many  of  our  modern  stone  build 
ings.  The  lines  are  usually  plumb,  the  corners  are  turned  at 
perfect  right  angles  in  squarely  built  houses,  while  in  round 
structures  the  circles  are  quite  perfect.  A  remarkable  degree  of 
skill  is  shown  by  the  manner  in  which  the  shapes  of  the  build 
ings  weie  adapted  to  the  limitations  of  space  which  the  galleries 
presented  and  in  the  utilization  of  every  available  surface.  Many 
of  the  walls  of  large  buildings  rise  directly  from  the  extreme 
edge  of  the  ledge,  sometimes  even  when  the  slope  to  the  front 
was  considerable,  yet,  so  thoroughly  were  they  laid,  that  many 
of  them  stand  to-day,  on  these  apparently  unstable  foundations 
in  a  good  state  of  preservation.  Where  curves  in  the  gallery 
existed,  the  walls  were  also  curved  or  angled  to  utilize  all  the 
space. 

In  some  of  the  more  spacious  caverns  a  continuous  corridor 
was  left  in  the  extreme  rear,  allowing  communication  between 
the  separate  apartments.  On  narrow  ledges  the  partitions  were 
carried  directly  back  to  the  cliff  walls  and  up  to  the  roof  of  the 
cavern,  provided  the  latter  was  not  too  high.  Four  stories  up 
ward  from  a  single  ledge  was  the  highest  that  came  under  the 
writer's  observation.  As  the  stories  are  low,  from  three  to  six 
feet,  it  is  not  usual  to  find  walls  running  higher  than  twenty  or 
twenty-five  feet;  ordinarily  they  are  not  so  high.  When  a  lower 
ledge  existed  in  front  of  the  main  gallery  ledge,  it  was  often 
built  upon  and  the  walls  carried  up  to  the  level  of  the  latter  and 
sometimes  above.  As  these  outer  structures  have  not  stood  as 
well  as  the  inner  ones,  it  is  not  possible  to  say  from  their  ruins 
how  high  they  were  built.  When  supplementary  ledges  existed 
high  above  the  main  floor,  these  narrow  projections  were  often 
utilized,  small  compartments  being  built  upon  them,  too  dimin 
utive  tor  human  occupation  and  possibly  were  used  for  storage. 
Fig.  i  exhibits  such  structures  built  on  narrow  sloping  surfaces 
below. 

The  openings  in  the  walls  consist  of  peep-holes  a  few  inches 
square,  windows  and  doors.  The  windows  are  not  numerous, 
many  rooms  being  entirely  without  them,  while  sometimes  they 
are  absent  from  the  front  walls  of  an  entire  village.  They  vary 
in  size  and  shape,  18x24  inches  being  a  large  size,  12x14  inches 
a  more  common  proportion.  The  sill  consists  of  a  single  flat 
stone,  the  lintel  of  stone  or  of  one  or  two  small  cedar  poles  to 
give  support  to  the  wall  of  stone  above.  The  doors  have  similar 
lintels,  but  the  door  sill  is  frequently  absent.  The  size  of  the 
door  is  also  quite  variable;  they  are  almost  always  small,  many 
requiring  one  to  enter  en  hands  and  knees,  and  being  barely 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE. 


139 


wide  enough  to  admit  an  adult  person.  Not  an  uncommon  size 
is  2x3  feet.  Yet  doors  five  or  six  feet  in  height  and  of  ample 
width  are  met  with  in  some  houses.  Some  rooms  have  neither 
doors  nor  windows  in  the  side  walls,  being  entered  through  a 
hole  in  the  roof — or  floor  of  the  next  story.  These  roofs  and 
floors  are  formed  of  cedar  or  pinon  poles  two  to  four  inches  in 
diameter,  some  of  which  were  allowed  to  project  a  foot  or  two 
beyond  the  outer  wall  They  show  that  they  were  cut  off  with 
some  blunt  instrument,  probably  the  stone  axe.  These  larger 
poles  were  covered  with  smaller  cross  sticks,  which  were  in  turn 


Fig.  1. 


covered  with  adobe  cement;  sometimes  cornstalks  and  strips  of 
bark  were  pressed  into  the  adobe  while  it  was  yet  soft,  as  these 
articles  are  still  found  imbedded  in  it.  Over  this  vegetable  mat 
ter  a  series  of  layers  of  brown  and  black  dirt  is  often  found; 
whether  originally  placed  there  or  the  accumulated  filth  from 
long  occupation  is  uncertain. 

The  floors  between  stories  have  usually  fallen  in,  leaving  the 
broken  poles  or  the  holes  in  the  wall  through  which  they  pro 
truded.  The  main  walls  of  the  buildings  are  from  one  to  two 
feet  in  thickness,  the  partition  walls  somewhat  thinner.  The 
size  and  shape  of  the  rooms  vary  greatly.  They  are  usually 
small,  Sxio  feet  being  a  large  room,  6x6  feet  a  more  common 
size,  while  great  numbers  of  little  compartments  about  3x4  feet 
are  met  with;  sometimes  they  are  nooks  and  corners  left  in 
completing  the  larger  outlines  of  the  building.  The  diminutive 


140 


PKIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


height  of  the  rooms  is  also  noticeable,  four  feet  being  a  not  un 
usual  height.  In  the  shape  of  the  inner  rooms  less  care  is  shown 
in  their  proportions  than  in  the  outer  walls  ;  the  partitions  being 
frequently  out  ot  parallel.  The  inner  surfaces  of  the  walls,  in 
some  cases,  were  simply  chinked  and  the  interstices  plastered 
like  the  outer  wall;  many  of  the  rooms,  however,  are  smoothly 
plastered  within,  and  impressions  of  the  fingers  and  the  palmar 
surface  of  the  hand  are  occasionally  visible.  Finger  marks  are 
often  found  in  the  cement  on  the  outer  walls,  and  their  small  size 
has  led  some  to  infer  that  this  was  woman's  work.  The  plastered 


walls  have  in  some  instances  been  smeared  over  with  tinted  clay 
of  either  a  brownish  or  a  pinkish  hue.  Mural  decorations  are 
exceedingly  rare.  A  band  in  black  around  the  upper  part  of  the 
room  has  been  observed,  and  occasionally  rude  attempts  at 
sketching  the  human  figure.  Pegs  of  wood  and  staples  of  bent 
willow  or  reed  let  into  the  wall  are  frequently  found;  and  proba 
bly  served  as  projections  on  which  to  hang  things.  A  special 
description  is  required  of  the  circular  rooms  called  "estufas," 
from  their  resemblance  to  the  circular  chambers  of  this  name 
found  in  the  Pueblo  towns.  One  or  more  of  these  structures 
are  to  be  found  in  almost  every  collection  of  houses.  They 
vary  a  good  deal  in  size  and  manner  of  construction,  but  are 
always  circular,  with  somewhat  heavier  walls  than  those  of  the 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE. 


141 


adjoining  buildings.  They  have  few  apertures.  A  diameter  of 
eight  or  ten  feet  is  not  unusual;  much  larger  ones  have  been 
described,  but  still  smaller  ones  are  met  with. 

Fig.  2  exhibits  the  ruins  of  one  of  these  structures,  showing  a 
projecting  ledge  or  seat  interrupted  by  a  solid  mass  of  masonry. 
Frequently  rectangular  recesses  exist  at  intervals  in  the  wall 
large  enough  to  contain  a  person  sitting  with  bent  knees;  smaller 
recesses  are  also  found.  Fig.  3  shows  one  of  them,  and  also 
exhibits  a  smoother  portion  of  the  wall  covered  with  plaster,  as 
well  as  surfaces  from  which  it  has  scaled.  These  estufas  were 


Fig.  S. 

usually  more  perfectly  plastered  and  tinted  than  the  other  class 
of  rooms. 

In  the  center  of  the  floor  a  shallow  circular  basin  of  baked 
clay  from  one  to  two  feet  in  diameter,  forming  a  solid  part  of  the 
floor,  represents  a  fire-place;  at  least  fragments  and  dust  of  char 
coal  are  found  in  these  basins.  Some  of  the  estufas  have  an 
aperture  about  a  foot  square,  opening  on  the  outer  wall,  and 
screened  within  by  a  little  wall  of  masonry  built  up  from  the 
floor  about  a  foot  or  two  from  the  wall ;  whether  this  was  to 
prevent  persons  outside  from  looking  in,  or  for  the  purpose  of 
distributing  the  draught,  on  account  of  the  central  fire-place,  is 
uncertain.  The  interior  walls  of  estufas  are  usually  much 
blacker  from  smoke  than  are  the  other  rooms.  The  entrance 
to  these  apartments  is  sometimes  difficult  to  discover ;  narrow 
subterranean  galleries  have  been  described  by  some  writers,  but 


142  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

roof  openings  and  apertures  high  up  in  the  walls  were  more 
common.  A  form  of  wall  construction  should  be  mentioned  in 
which  the  wall  is  continued  upward  upon  a  few  tiers  ot  stone  by 
wicker  work,  heavily  plastered  inside  and  outside  with  adobe. 
Concerning  the  number  and  grouping  of  the  rooms  in  different 
villages  as  indicated  by  the  ground  plan,  it  may  be  said  that  they 
range  from  small  collections  of  half  a  dozen  compartments  to 
those  with  more  than  a  hundred.  Richard  Wetherill  discovered 


an  unusually  large  group  of  buildings  which  he  named  "The 
Cliff  Palace,"  in  which  the  ground  plan  showed  more  than  one 
hundred  compartments,  covering  an  area  over  four  hundred  feet 
in  length  and  eighty  feet  in  depth  in  the  wider  portion.  Usually 
the  buildings  are  continuous  where  the  configuration  of  the  cliffs 
permitted  such  construction.  Many  towns  present  the  appear 
ance  of  having  been  added  to  from  time  to  time,  as  the  wants  of 
the  community  increased.  This  is  suggested  by  the  different 
degrees  of  perfection  in  the  masonry  of  adjoining  buildings  and 
by  the  better  or  poorer  construction  of  upper  stories.  Isolated 
buildings  are  occasionally  met  with.  Some  of  these,  situated  on 
spurs  or  promontories  which  overlook  the  valleys,  have  been  re 
garded  as  towers  ot  defence  or  points  of  lookout.  The  valley 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE.  143 

ruins  also  exhibit  the  remains  of  large  isolated  round  structures, 
sometimes  with  a  double  circular  wall,  and  in  the  broad  valleys 
are  ruins  with  larger  groups  of  apartments  than  those  in  the 
cliffs,  showing  a  greater  resemblance  to  the  Pueblo  towns.  They 
probably  represent  different  periods  of  architecture  and  were 
possibly  the  work  of  different  tribes. 

Within  the  cliff-houses,  under  the  debris  of  fallen  walls  and 
in  the  refuse  heaps  about  them,  various  articles  have  been  found 
which  throw  further  light  upon  the  habits  of  the  cliff-dweller. 
They  may  be  enumerated  and  classified  in  the  following  manner. 
Those  marked  with  an  asterisk  did  not  come  under  the  writer's 
observation  or  verification.  For  their  description  and  identifica 
tion  Mr.  John  Wetherill  is  the  informant,  and  his  careful  obser 
vations  may  be  regarded  as  trustworthy. 

1.  Implements    for   war   and    the  chase. — Bows   of  wood;* 
sinew  bow  strings;*  arrows  of  wood  and  of  *-eed;  flint  and  bone 
arrow-points;  flint  and  bone  spear-points;  flint  and  bone  knives 
of  various  sizes;  buckskin   quiver  with  arrows;*  snow  shoes.* 
Bows  and  arrows  were  found  by  the  Wetherills  in  a  sealed  room 
beside  the  skeleton  of  a  man   dressed   in   a  suit  of  fringed  and 
tanned  skins. 

2.  Tools  for  building. — Stone  axes,  polished  and  unpolished, 
of  various  sizes,  shapes  and  materials,  chiefly  of  igneous  rock. 
Fig.  4  exhibits  one  with  polished  edge,  6x3  inches;  stone  ham 
mers,  large  and  small.     Both  axes  and  hammers  are  frequently 
found  with  a  short  handle  of  wood  bound  to  the  stone  by  strips 
of  yucca. 

3.  Implements  for  the   manufacture  of  domestic  articles. — 
Sticks  about  three  feet  long,  knobbed   at  one  end  and  worked 
into  a  blade  at  the  other,  supposed  to  have  been  used  in  beating 
and  preparing  the  yucca  fibre,  as  they  have  been  found  in  rooms 
with  bundles  of  yucca  in  different  stages  of  preparation.*     Awls 
of  turkey  bone;  bone   needles;*    flat  and   rounded   stones   for 
shaping  pottery,  clay   for  pottery  ;*  ^  flat   hide   scrapers;    sharp 
sticks  and  paddle-shaped  pieces  of  wood  thought  to  be  agricul 
tural  implements;  stfcks  supposed  to  be  part  of  a  loom.* 

4.  Household  utensils. — Knives  and   spoons  of  bone;  stones 
for  grinding  corn   (metate   stones);    hoppers   of  woven  yucca; 
stone  pestles;  sharp-pointed  sticks  for  starting  a  fire;*  tinder  of 
bark  and  of  grass;  baskets  and  fragments  of  basket  work  made 
of  grass,  yucca,  rushes,  reeds  and  willow.     Baskets  shaped  for 
the  back   have  been  found  with   a  harness  of  yucca  rope  and 
hide.*     Matting  of  rushes   (see   Fig.   5)   and   matting  made  of 
willow  osiers,  perforated  at  short   intervals  by  small  awl  holes, 
through  which  yucca  strings  pass,  holding  them   together  and 
parallel.     Rings   of  yucca  and   of   rushes   to   support  unstable 
pottery;  the  yucca  plant   in   different  stages  of  preparation  for 
fibre ;    yucca   rope,  both   twisted  and  braided   forms,   cordage, 


144  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

twine  and  thread;  flat  boards,  supposed  to  be  "baby  boards." 
One  was  found  with  a  bed  of  corn  tops  on  it*  Small  bundles 
of  stiff  grasses  tied  in  the  middle  and  cut  off  squarely  at  both 
ends ;  said  to  be  used  to-day  by  the  Moquis  as  hair-brushes  or 
combs. 

5.  Dress  and  ornamentation. — Fragments  of  tanned  hides 
bound  with  cordage  of  yucca  fibre;  fringed  buckskin  garments; 
leggings  and  cloth  made  of  human  hair;  cotton  cloth;  cotton 


Fig.  5. 

cord;  yucca  fibre  cloth;  finely  woven  bands  of  yucca  fibre;  socks 
made  of  yucca  fibre;  sandals  of  yucca  .with  various  styles  of 
finish.  Fig.  5  shows  one  exhibiting  the  heel  and  toe  bands. 
Some  sandals  have  an  in-sole  of  corn-husks  or  of  soft  bark 
fibre.  Feather  cloth :  this  peculiar  textile  was  made  by  splitting 
off  the  downy  part  of  feathers  and  wrapping  the  thin  layer  of 
quill  around  a  yucca  string;  a  feather  cord  as  large  as  one's  fin 
ger  is  thus  formed,  and  this  interlaced  and  tied  together  answered 
for  a  mantle,  such  garments  having  been  found  as  a  wrapping 
for  the  dead.  Bone  beads;  snail  shells  perforated  for  stringing; 
jet  and  stone  ornaments  have  been  found. 

6.  Pottery — Large  jars  holding  from  one  to  several  gallons,  the 
so-called  corrugated  ware  (indented  ware,  coiled  ware).     Fig.  5 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE.  145 

exhibits  in  the  largest  fragment  a  specimen  of  this  peculiar  pot 
tery;  small  jars  are  made  of  the  same  material,  aud  their  shapes 
vary.  Much  speculation  has  been  indulged  in  as  to  how  they 
were  made,  some  maintaining  that  they  consist  of  strips  of  clay 
coiled  spirally  and  indented  with  the  finger  nail ;  others  think 
that  this  effect  is  due  entirely  to  nail  indentation.  As  proof  that 
the  nail  was  used  for  indenting  this  ware,  the  writer  has  a  frag 
ment  on  which  the  delicate  lines  of  the  skin  have  been  perfectly 
impressed  below  the  nail  marks.  The  inner  surface  is  smooth. 
These  jars  are  usually  blackened  from  smoke,  as  if  used  for 
cooking  utensils.  They  are  of  a  coarser  material  than  the 
smooth  pottery,  but  comparatively  thin,  considering  the  size  of 
the  jar.  Of  smooth  pottery  a  great  variety  has  been  found;  jars 
large  and  small,  jars  with  rims  for  lids,  jar  lids,  jars  with  side 
handles,  jugs,  large  and  small,  pitchers,  bowls,  mugs,  ladles  (see 
handle  of  ladle,  Fig.  4);  peculiar  little  pieces  of  pottery  in  which 
cotton  wicking  has  been  found,  supposed  to  be  lamps.*  Some 
of  the  pottery  is  unglazed  and  undecorated.  The  surface  of  the 
decorated  pottery  has  a  slight  glaze  upon  it,  which  is  in  some 
specimens  slightly  absorbent.  Figs.  4  and  5  show  a  variety  of 
patterns  on  fragments.  As  they  are  evidently  hand  designs,  the 
variations  are  very  great. 

Tons  of  fragments  of  this  ancient  pottery  are  scattered  over 
the  mesa  and  in  the  valleys,  as  well  as  in  and  around  the  cliff- 
houses.  Either  the  makers  were  indefatigable  potters,  or  else 
the  race  dwelt  long  in  the  land.  In  truth,  we  do  not  know 
whether  they  represent  different  periods,  or  whether  the  makers 
were  of  different  races.  That  many  of  the  designs  are  at  least 
as  old  as  the  buildings  is  proved  by  the  fragments,  occasionally 
found  imbedded  in  the  abode  as  chinking  material.  Less  com 
mon  are  fragments  of  a  red  pottery  without  decorations,  except 
peculiar  streaks  of  black  through  it  on  the  inner  surface,  and  on 
the  outer,  indistinct  patches  of  a  dull  greenish  tint.  Sometimes 
a  mottled  effect  is  evident.  Holes  have  been  drilled  through  the 
pottery  in  some  instances,  apparently  after  baking,  and  broken 
pottery  was  mended  by  tying  a  string  through  holes  drilled  in 
the  fragments. 

7.  Food  supply. — Maize  or  Indian  corn;  the  stalks,  husks,  tas 
sels,  silk,  cob  and  kernel  are  frequently  found.  That  some  of 
this  material  is  as  old  as  the  building  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
the  stalks  were  used  in  the  construction  of  the  floors,  being  ac 
tually  imbedded  in  the  adobe;  cobs  being  also  used  to  chink  the 
walls  with,  an  impression  of  the  cob  in  the  now  hard  adobe  being 
found  on  detaching  one  from  its  bed.  Corn  husks  on  the  cob, 
knotted  or  braided  and  bunched  much  as  the  Eastern  farmer 
treats  his  seed-corn,  are  not  uncommon.  As  already  mentioned, 
the  husks  were  used  as  in-soling  for  sandals  and  for  the  padding 
of  other  articles.  The  corn  itself  was  small,  a  yellow  variety, 


146  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

some  kernels  showing  a  small  dent.  The  cob  was  also  small 
and  short,  usually  about  three  inches  in  length.  Jars  of  shelled 
corn  have  been  found,  but  when  the  kernels  are  obtained  from 
refuse  heaps  or  open  vessels  the  softer  part  has  generally  been 
gnawed  away  by  some  rodent,  leaving  only  the  hard  outer  rim. 
Efforts  to  sprout  the  complete  kernels,  it  is  said,  have  thus  far 
proved  unsuccessful.  Reddish-brown  beans  of  fair  size  are  fre 
quently  found.  The  stems,  rind  and  seed  of  gourd-like  vege 
tables  of  different  kinds  are  abundant;  some  thin  like  a  gourd, 
others  squash-like,  and  another  kind  resembling  the  pumpkin.  A 
kind  of  walnut  has  also  been  found.  The  American  turkey  was 
evidently  an  important  factor  in  the  domestic  economy  of  the 
cliff-dweller.  His  feathers  and  quills  were  used  for  ornament 
and  dress,  his  bones  were  worked  up  into  useful  household 
utensils,  such  as  awls  and  needles,  and  we  can  hardly  doubt  but 
that  his  flesh  formed  an  important  article  of  animal  diet,  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  broken  bones  in  the  refuse  heaps.  That 
this  people  did  not  merely  hunt  the  wild  turkey,  but  succeeded 
in  domesticating  it  seems  probable  from  the  abundance  of  drop 
pings,  particularly  in  certain  small  compartments,  with  which 
are  mixed  the  down  and  feathers  of  this  fowl.  The  droppings 
of  smaller  birds  and  different  rodents  are  numerous  under  the 
cliffs,  the  accumulation  of  ages,  but  the  arrangement,  appearances 
and  situation  serve  to  distinguish  them  in  many  cases  from  the 
deposits  just  referred  to.  Deer  bones,  buckskins,  sinews  and 
horn  show  that  one  or  more  varieties  of  the  cervidae  supplied 
these  people  with  material  for  food,  dress  and  utensils.  The 
question  will  naturally  arise  in  the  mind  of  every  reader  of  this 
list  of  articles  found:  How  do  we  know  that  they  belonged  to 
the  original  builders  .and  occupants  of  the  cliff-dwellings  and 
not  to  modern  tribes,  as  so  many  of  the  articles  resemble  those 
known  to  be  in  use  by  Indian  tribes?  The  truth  is  that  in  many 
cases  we  can  not  feel  sure,  yet  examples  of  most  of  the  articles 
described  have  been  found  in  situations  or  under  conditions 
which  show  most  conclusively  that  they  are  not  recent,  but  as 
old  as  some  parts  of  some  of  the  buildings;  as  in  the  instance 
cited  of  articles  found  imbedded  in  the  mortar  or  under  the 
ancient  floors.  Again,  the  uniformity  of  the  findings  over  widely 
distant  regions,  wherever  this  class  of  buildings  has  been  care 
fully  examined,  is  strong  confirmatory  evidence;  yet  too  much 
care  can  not  be  taken  in  reaching  conclusions  in  this  sort  of 
work. 

8.  Human  remains. — The  burial  mounds  on  the  mesa  contain 
the  decayed  remains  of  human  skeletons  in  abundance,  and  many 
in  a  fair  state  of  preservation,  yet  nothing  but  the  bodes  remain 
except  pieces  of  pottery  buried  with  the  body,  these  usually  in 
fragments.  When  the  attitude  can  be  determined  it  is  usually 
the  flexed  position,  the  body  having  been  laid  on  the  side.  Skel- 


CLIFF-DWELLINGS  OF  THE  MESA  VERDE.  147 

etons  are  also  found  buried  among  the  ledges,  where  occasion 
ally  u/ider  the  protection  of  some  large  mass  of  rock  sufficient 
earth  has  been  retained  in  which  a  shallow  grave  could  be  ex 
cavated.  The  best  preserved  human  remains  are  found  in  the 
dry  material  under  the  cliffs.  An  occasional  place  of  burial 
was  on  or  under  the  floor  of  some  room  in  the  building.  Some 
times  the  body  was  simply  laid  away  in  the  dry  dust,  the  room 
being  sealed;  in  other  cases  the  earthen  floor  covering  the  body 
shows  the  accumulation  and  effect  of  use  after  burial.  Where 
absolute  protection  from  moisture  has  occurred,  mummified  re 
mains  have  been  found  with  the  wrappings  of  the  dead,  in  a 
more  or  less  complete  state  of  preservation.  Although  com 
paratively  few  have  been  found,  the  uniformity  of  method  in 
dress  and  attitude  shows  what  was  their  favorite  method  of  burial. 
The  outer  wrapping  consists  of  the  willow  matting  already  de 
scribed.  It  was  a  kind  of  burial  case.  Beneath  this  is  usually 
a  covering  of  rush  matting,  and  next  to  the  skin  a  wrapping  of 
fibre  cloth  or  a  mantle  of  the  feather  cloth  already  described. 
The  flexed  position  on  the  side  is  the  usual  one.  The  hair  ot 
the  head  has  been  found  partly  preserved  on  some  mummies. 
It  is  said  to  be  of  fine  texture,  not  coarse  like  Indian  hair,  and 
varying  in  color  from  shades  of  yellowish-brown  to  reddish- 
brown  and  black.  The  writer  was  not  able  to  verify  this  by 
personal  observation,  as  no  mummies  were  exhumed  during  the 
trip,  but  the  facts  are  vouched  for  by  many  observers.  The 
Wetherills  exhumed  one  mummy  having  a  short  brownish 
beard.  It  is  possible  that  a  bleaching  process  may  account  for 
the  change  in  color,  though  this  is  doubtful ;  it  certainly  will 
not  account  for  the  soft,  fine  texture  of  the  hair.  If  this  obser 
vation  is  corroborated  in  future  findings,  as  they  have  been  up  to 
the  present,  an  important  ethnological  fact  will  be  established. 
A  theory  prevails  in  Colorado,  which  the  writer  was  unable  to 
trace  to  its  originator,  that  three  distinct  races  inhabited  the  land, 
the  mesa-dwellers  with  perfect  skulls,  the  cliff-dwellers  with 
skulls  having  a  perpendicular  occipital  flattening  and  the  valley- 
dwellers  with  skulls  having  an  oblique  occipital  flattening.  The 
theory  is  based  on  the  fact  that  different  shaped  skulls  have  been 
found  at  these  different  situations.  The  number  of  skulls  ex 
amined  under  the  writer's  observation  were  not  sufficient  to 
establish  much ;  yet  he  saw  skulls  removed  from  the  mesa 
mounds  which,  contrary  to  the  theory,  were  both  horizontal  and 
oblique  flattening.  The  cliff-house  skulls  were  perpendicularly 
flattened,  and  all  these  flattened  skulls  were  symmetrical.  The 
angle  and  plane  of  flattening  vary  in  different  skulls,  so  that  it 
may  be  readily  conceived  that  in  a  large  number  of  skulls  we 
might  find  intermediate  grades  from  the  perpendicular  to  the 
oblique  forms.  While  the  theory  advanced  may  be  correct,  the 
objection  to  accepting  it  is,  that  it  rests  on  the  examination  of 


148  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

too  few  crania.  While  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  preponderance 
of  perpendicular  flattening  in  the  cliff-dwellers'  skulls,  we  are,  not 
justified  in  concluding  that  they  were  necessarily  a  different  race 
from  the  valley  peoples  who  flattened  their  skulls  differently. 
Localities  may  be  found  to  differ,  and  the  question  should  be  left 
undecided  until  a  larger  number  of  skulls  have  been  examined 
and  proper  craniometric  observations  made  upon  them.  The 
specimens  of  crania  seen  do  uot  usually  impress  one  as  of  ex 
tremely  low  grade.  They  are  brachycephalic,  but  this  is  in  great 
part  due  to  the  occipital  flattening.  The  vault  is  well  rounded^ 
not  sloping  laterally  like  the  crania  of  many  Indian  tribes.  The 
teeth  of  adults  are  generally  worn  flat  on  the  crown.  The  skel 
etons,  while  not  exhibiting  signs  ot  unusual  muscular  develop 
ment,  as  indicated  by  the  rough  points  for  the  attachment  of 
muscles  and  the  curvature  of  the  long  bones,  were  yet  well  de 
veloped  and  of  good  stature.  The  mummy  of  a  man  found  by 
the  Wetherills  measured  5  feet  10  inches,  and  that  of  a  woman 
5  feet  6  inches. 

9.  Rock  marking. — Attention  has  been  called  to  the  almost 
total  absence  of  figures,  decorative  or  otherwise,  on  the  walls  of 
the  buildings.  Rude  characters,  inscriptions  and  pictures  are 
also  very  rare  in  the  canons  of  the  Mesa  Verde.  A  line  cut  in 
a  spiral  was  the  only  object  of  the  sort  that  came  under  the 
writer's  observation ;  a  photograph  of  this  was  lost  by  a  faulty 
exposure,  Their  entire  absence  in  so  many  -of  these  more  iso 
lated  villages  should  make  us  doubtful  about  the  origin  of  those 
found  on  the  valley  walls,  along  lines  of  travel  which  modern 
tribes  have  used, 

Grooves  in  the  sandstone,  where  stone  implements  have  been 
ground  and  sharpened,  may  be  seen  on  the  ledges  about  almost 
every  dwelling;  broad,  hollow  grooves  that  would  fit  the  larger 
axes,  narrow  lines  where  probably  a  bone  awl  was  ground,  or 
other  sharp  implement. 

At  certain  levels,  in  some  canons,  bituminous  shales  and  thin 
seams  of  coal  appear.  John  Wetherill  states  that  he  has  found 
coal  cinders  in  the  ash  heaps  and  fire  basins  of  cliff-towns  near 
such  outcropping-,  and  regards  this  as«proof  that  they  recognized 
the  value  ot  coal  as  fuel  and  Utilized  it. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  149 


CHAPTER  X. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE  OF  THE  PUEBLOS. 

In  giving  the  traditionary  history  of  the  pueblos  we  shall  in 
clude  only  those  tribes  which  had  their  seats  on  the  Great 
Plateau,  and  who  still  occupy  those  peculiar  habitations  to  which 
the  expressive  name  of  "  Pueblo"  has  been  given,  but  must  ex 
clude  those  tribes  who  formerly  had  their  homes  among  the 
cliffs,  or  the  Cliff  dwellers,  so  called.  These  are  supposed  to 
have  belonged  to  the  same  stock  as  the  Pueblos,  and  to  have 
followed  the  same  mode  of  life;  but  they  were  driven  from  therr 
homes  so  long  ago  that  they  can  not  be  identified,  and  no  record 
of  their  past  can  be  secured.  It  is  strange  that  with  so  many  monu 
ments  scattered  over  the  Great  Plateau  of  the  interior  that  the 
materials  for  history  should  be  so  meagre;  but  this  is  in  accord 
with  the  condition  of  society.  The  people  may  have  reached  a 
high  degree  of  art  and  architecture,  and  left  structures  behind 
them  which  are  very  suggestive,  but  having  had  no  letters  or 
fixed  method  of  making  a  record  of  events,  their  history  has 
perished.  It  is  only  among  the  few  survivors  that  we  can  look 
for  those  traditions  which  will  explain  the  stiuctures  or  furnish 
a  clew  to  the  customs  of  the  past.  The  traditions  which  we 
shall  consider  will  be  those  which  have  been  preserved  among  the 
Tusayans.  These  are  important,  for  they  not  only  cover  the 
history  of  this  people,  but  they  suggest  many  things  in  refer 
ence  to  the  tribes  which  formerly  adjoined  them.  There  is  a  great 
similarity  between  their  traditions.  They  embrace  about  the 
same  events.  They  all  begin  with  the  Story  of  Creation,  and 
describe  the  various  migrations,  and  speak  of  the  changes  which 
occurred  and  the  reason  for  the  changes.  They  contain  allusions 
to  the  attacks  of  wild  tribes  and  the  conflicts  which  occurred 
among  their  own  tribes.  They  generally  end  with  the  final 
settlement  in  some  chosen  locality,  and  in  the  combination  of 
the  different  tribes  in  making  villages  or  groups  of  villages. 

The  wanderings  of  the  Tusayans  and  Zufiis  were,  to  be  sure, 
confined  to  the  limited  territory  of  Colorado,  Arizona,  New 
Mexico  and  the  north  of  Mexico;  and  the  starting  point  can  not 
be  discovered  as  occurring  in  any  other  region.  In  this  respect 
they  differ  from  all  other  aboriginal  tribes  of  America  and  espec 
ially  from  the  so-called  civilized  people — the  Aztecs  and  Toltees. 

The  Aztecs  speak  of  having  departed  from  the  "seven  caves," 
and  of  spending  many  years  in  their  long  migrations.  Caves 
are  mentioned  as  the  starting  place  or  station  in  the  migration 


150  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

of  the  Chichimecs  and  the  Toltecs.*  Some  have  thought  that 
this  proves  that  the  Aztecs  and  the  Toltecs  were  the  same  people 
who  formerly  occupied  the  pueblos;  but  the  point  has  not  yet 
been  confirmed,  either  by  the  evidence  of  architecture  or  even  by 
tradition.  This,  however,  can  be  said,  that  the  Tusayans  were  a 
very  ancient  people  on  the  Great  Plateau  and  they  were  more 
nearly  allied  to  the  Aztecs  than  they  were  to  any  of  the  wild 
tribes,  such  as  the  Navajosand  Apaches,  who  occupied  the  same 
territory  at  the  beginning  of  history. 

When  they  were  invaded  by  the  Navajosf  these  ancient  people 
left  their  homes  in  the  valleys  and  constructed  temporary 
homes  in  the  canon  walls,  as  cliff  ruins  are  abundant  through 
out  the  region. 

Ultimately  the  ancient  Cliff-dwellers  succumbed  to  the  Nava- 
jos  and  were  driven  out.  A  part  joined  the  tribes  in  the  valley 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  others  joined  the  Zuni  and  the  people  of 
Tusayan.  Still  others  pushed  on  to  the  valley  of  the  Gila.J  As 
to  the  relative  age  of  the  tribes  very  little  can  be  said. 
The  traditionary  history  of  the  Navajos,§  including  their  mythol 
ogy,  covers  a  period  of  from  five  hundred  to  seven  hundred 
years.  The  same  period  might  be  ascribed  to  the  Cliff-dwellers, 
but  strange  to  say  the  history  of  the  Tusayans  can  not  be  carried 
back  much  farther  than  this. 

Toltec  records  reach  back  to  an  earlier  period.  They  contain 
the  Nahua  annals  from  the  time  of  the  deluge,  or  even  from  the 
creation;  but  their  wanderings  terminated  in  the  building  of  the 
city  and  pyramid  of  Cholula.  The  Aztec  records  are  contained 
in  charts  or  picture  records.  Their  wanderings  culminated  in 
the  building  of  the  great  city  of  Mexico.|| 

As  to  the  early  condition  of  these  pueblo  tribes  very  little  is 
known,  and  yet  so  far  as  it  is  known,  it  contrasts  strongly  both 
with  that  of  the  Aztecs  and  Toltecs  of  the  south  and  that  of  the 
wild  tribes,  such  as  the  Apaches  and  Navajos,  to  the  north. 

According  to  tradition,  the  Aztecs  were,  at  a  very  early  date, 

*The  Choctaws,  or  Muscogees,  according  to  their  traditions,  migrated  from  the  Mountain 
of  Fire,  which  was  situated  to  the  far  west  They  were  led  by  the  leaning  pole  for  many 
months  and  years,  and  finally  crossed  the  "great  river"  and  settled  in  the  Gulf  states,  where 
they  began  to  build  mounds. 

fThe  Navajos  belong  to  the  Athapascan  stock  of  British  Ameiica  and  are  allied  to  the 
Apaches.  Their  migrations  began  in  the  far  north  and  brought  them  to  the  mountain 
region,  which  is  situated  on  the  ->an  Juan.  The  most  interesting  ruins  of  America  are  found 
in  this  region,  and  the  ancient  pueblos  here  are  of  superior  structure.  They  were  all  built 
by  people  whom  the  Navajos  displaced  when  they  migrated  from  the  far  north. 

jSee  Canyons  of  the  Colorado,  by  Major].  W.  Powell,  p.  53. 

gThe  Navajp  mythology  begins  with  the  creation  aud  the  wanderings  of  the  Navajowar 
gods.  The  divine  brothers  went  to  the  San  Juan  Valley  to  dwell.  They  brought  from,  the 
houses  in  the  cliffs  the  ears  of  corn  from  which  the  first  pair  were  made.  Their  home  was 
in  the  house  of  the  dark  cliffs.  Since  this  pair  was  created  seven  times  old  age  was  killed. 
The  age  of  an  old  man  was  a  definite  cycle  of  one  hundred  and  two  years.  This  would  give 
a  period  of  from  five  hundred  to  seven  hundred  years  since  the  first  gentes  of  the  dark  cliff 
houses  were  created  See  Journal  of  American  Folk-  Lore— "A  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo 
Indians,''  by  Dr.  Washington  Matthews,  Vol.  III.,  No.  9,  p.  89. 

||The  Toltec  migration  is  placed  by  most  authorities  between  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries,  Aztec  migration,  about  the  fourteenth  century. 

The  names  applied  to  the  ancient  Nahua  dwelling  places  are  Aztlan,  Culhuacan,  (Culi- 
acan?),  and  Azuilasco. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  151 

somewhat  advanced  in  civilization,  or  if  not  this,  they  very 
rapidly  acquired  the  arts  of  civilization  from  their  neighbors,  the 
Toltecs.  The  Navajos,  on  the  other  hand,  according  to  their 
own  traditions  and  myths,  were,  at  the  outset,  and  continued  to 
be,  wild  hunters  and  mountaineers,  and  never  settled  down  to 
permanent  seats  or  to  an  agricultural  life.  The  earliest  condi 
tion  of  the  Pueblos  was  that  of  an  agricultural  people,  who  dwelt 
in  houses  and  depended  upon  irrigation  for  subsistence.  Their 
migrations  from  one  place  to  another  were  caused  by  a  lack  of 
rain  and  the  attack  of  enemies.  There  is  another  difference  also 
between  the  Pueblos  and  all  other  tribes  and  nations.  They 
speak  of  having  dwelt  in  houses,  the  ruins  of  which  mark  their 
various  stopping  places.  So  their  migration  routes  are  much 
more  likely  to  be  identified  than  either  the  Aztecs,  who  speak  of 
caves,  or  of  the  wild  tribes  who  speak  of  the  mountains  as  their 
former  dwelling  place. 

With  this  introduction  let  us  turn  to  the  history  of  the  Tusay- 
ans.  This  is  contained  in  their  traditions  and  their  architecture. 

I.  We  begin  with  their  tribal  traditions  and  their  migration 
myths.  We  are  indebted  to  several  gentlemen,  who  have  made 
their  homes  among  the  Tusayans,  for  securing  the  creation  myths, 
and  properly  interpreting  them.f  Among  these  gentlemen  we 
would  place  Mr.  A.  M.  Stephen  as  first;  but  along  with  him  we 
would  mention  Dr.  Washington  Matthews.  Mr.  Frank  H.  Gush 
ing,  and  Dr.  J.  Walter  Fewkes.  Mr.  Stephen  says  the  creation 
myths  of  the  Tusayans  differ  widely,  but  none  of  them  designate 
the  region  now  occupied  as  the  place  of  their  creation,  or  genesis. 
They  are  socially  divided  into  totemic  groups,  each  one  of  which 
preserves  a  creation  myth.  All  of  them  claim  a  common  origin 
in  the  interior  of  the  earth ;  but  the  place  of  emergence  is 
in  widely  separated  localities.  The  following  is  the  stoiy:  In 
the  beginning  all  men  lived  together  in  the  lowest  depths  in  a 
region  of  darkness  and  moisture.  They  suffered  great  misery, 
but  through  the  intervention  of  the  great  divinity  Myungwa, 
the  god  of  the  interior  and  of  Baholikonga,  a  crested  serpent, 
the  genius  of  water,  the  ancient  men  were  led  up  through  four 
different  houses  or  caves.  The  means  by  which  they  came  up 
was  the  magic  cane,  the  seed  of  which  the  "old  men"  had  re 
ceived  from  the  divinity.  It  penetrated  through  a  crevice  in  the 
roof  over-head  and  mankind  climbed  to  a  higher  plain.  A  dim 
light  appeared  in  this  stage  and  vegetation  was  produced.  An 
other  magic  growth  of  cane  afforded  the  means  of  rising  to  a 
still  higher  story  or  plain,  on  which  the  light  was  brighter,  vege 
tation  was  reproduced,  and  animals  were  created.  The  final  as 
cent  to  the  surface,  which  was  the  fourth  plain,  was  affected  by  a 
similar  magic  growth  and  was  led  by  mythic  twins.  According  to 

*  Quoted  by  Mr.  Cosmos  Mindeleff  in  the  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology. 


15  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

some  of  the  myths  it  was  accomplished  by  climbing  a  tall  pine 
tree;  according  to  others,  by  climbing  a  cane,  the  alternate 
leaves  of  which  afforded  steps  as  of  a  ladder.*  A  similar  myth 
prevails  among  the  Navajos ;  but  the  place  of  emergence  was 
located  by  them  in  the  Navajo  country.  There  was  one  moun 
tain  on  the  east  like  San  Mateo ;  one  on  the  west  like  San  Fran 
cisco  ;  one  on  the  north  like  San  Juan  ;  one  on  the  south  like 
the  heights  beyond  Salt  Lake.  When  they  came  the  land  was 
not  empty,  but  another  race  of  people  dwelt  in  the  mountains. 
The  seed  grew  every  night,  but  did  not  grow  in  the  day-time. 
This  accounted  for  the  solid  nodes  in  the  reed  or  cane.  The 
Navajos  have  also  a  tradition  of  the  flood — that  the  water  east, 
south,  west,  and  north  flowed  over  the  land,  and  the  people  fled 
to  the  mountains  of  the  north.f  The  Tusayans  maintain  that 
the  outlet  through  which  mankind  came  has  never  been 
closed,  and  through  it  the  great  divinity  sends  the  germs  of  all 
living  things.  It  is  still  symbolized  by  the  hatchways  of  the 
kivas,  by  the  designs  on  the  sand  altars,  by  the  unconnected 
circle  painted  on  pottery,  and  by  devices  on  basketry.  When 
the  people  came  to  the  surface  they  were  collected  into  different 
families,  or  tribes,  and  placed  under  the  direction  of  twins 
( Pekonghoya  and  Balingahoya ),  the  echo,  assisted  by  their 
grandmother,  the  spider  woman.  They  distributed  gifts  among 
the  people  and  assigned  each  family  a  pathway,  and  so  the  various 
families  were  dispersed.  The  legends  indicated  a  long  period  of 
migrations  in  separate  communities.  One  community,  the 
Hopituh,  after  being  taught  to  build  stone  houses,  was  also 
divided  and  took  separate  paths.  The  gioups  came  to  Tusayan 
at  different  times  and  from  different  directions.  The  legend  goes 
on  to  state  that  the  people  lived  in  snake  skins,  which  hung  on 
the  end  of  a  rainbow.  A  brilliant  star  rose  in  the  southeast. 
The  people  cut  a  staff  and  set  it  in  the  ground,  waiting  until  the 
star  came  to  the  top  of  the  staff.  They  started  and  traveled  as 
long  as  the  star  shone  above  the  staff.  When  it  disappeared 
they  halted,  and  built  houses  during  their  halt.  They  built 
both  round  and  square  houses.  All  the  ruins  between  here  and 
Navajo  Mountain  mark  the  places."  This  is  the  story  of  the 
Snake  people. 

Another  story  is  told  by  the  Horn  people.  They  came  from 
a  mountain  region  in  the  east,  over  which  roamed  the  deer, 
antelope,  and  the  bison.  They  tell  of  protracted  migration  and 
of  halting  places.  One  of  these  halting  places  was  a  canon  with 
high,  steep  walls,  in  which  was  a  flowing  stream.  This  was  the 
Tsegi,  the  Canon  de  Chelly  At  first  many  of  the  Horns  were 
dissatisfied  with  their  cavern  homes,  and  so  they  left  the  canon 
and  finally  reached  Tusayan. 

*Annual  report  of  Bureau  of  Ethnology  for  i8S6  and  '87.     P.   17. 
fSee  American  Antiquarian,  Vol.  V.  No.  3,  p.  298. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  153 

The  Bears  also  lived  among  the  mountains  of  the  east.  They, 
too,  came  to  the  Tsegi,  Canon  de  Chelly,  where  they  found 
houses,  but  no  people.  They  did  not  remain  there  long,  but 
moved  farther  west,  to  the  place  occupied  by  the  Fire  People, 
who  lived  in  a  large  house.  The  ruin  of  this  house  still  stands 
and  is  called  the  fire  house. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  Snake  people  were  the  first  occupants 
of  the  region,  but  not  long  after  the  arrival  of  the  Horn  people 
the  Squash  people  came.  They  say  that  they  came  from  PaUt- 
kawbi,  the  "red  land,"  in  the  far  south,  and  for  a  long  time  they 
lived  in  the  valley  of  the  Colorado  Chiquito.*  They  still  distin 
guish  the  ruin  of  their  early  village  there,  which  was  built  as 
usual  on  the  brink  of  a  canon.  They  built  no  permanent  houses 
until  they  reached  the  middle  mesa  in  the  vicinity  of  Chukubi, 
near  which  are  ruins  which  they  claim  to  have  been  theirs.  The 
sites  of  the  ancient  Squash  villages  are  marked  by  high  columns 
of  sandstone  called  guardians,  very  much  as  the  site  of  the  Walpi 
village  is  marked.  The  Squash  village  on  the  south  end  of  the 
mesa  was  attacked  by  a  fierce  band  of  Apaches,  who  completely 
overpowered  them.  The  village  was  then  evacuated  and  the 
material  removed  to  a  high  summit,  where  they  reconstructed 
their  dwellings  around  the  village  Mashongnavi.  This  tradition 
is  important,  for  it  shows  that  the  villages  were  first  located  in 
the  valleys  or  on  the  first  mesa,  but  were  afterward  built  on  the 
high  summits  for  the  sake  of  protection. 

The  next  to  follow  them  were  the  Bear,  Bear-skin  Rope,  and 
the  Blue  jay.  They  came  from  the  vicinity  of  San  Francisco 
Mountain.  They  built  a  village  on  the  south  end  of  the  mesa 
close  to  the  site  of  the  present  Mashongnavi.  Soon  afterward 
came  the  Burrowing  Owl  and  the  Coyote  from  the  vicinity  of 
Navajo  Mountain  in  the  north.  They  also  built  upon  the 
Mashongnavi  summit.  Straggling  bands  of  various  other  groups 
are  mentioned  as  coming  from  other  directions.  The  old  tradi- 
tionists  at  Shumopavi  hold  that  the  first  to  come  there  were  the 
Paroquet,  the  Bear  and  the  Blue-jay.  The  ruins  on  a  mesa 
about  ten  miles  south  are  the  remains  of  a  village  built  by  them 
before  they  reached  Shumopavi.  Other  groups  followed — the 
Mole,  the  Spider  and  the  Wiksrun.f 

Shumopavi  received  no  further  accession  of  population.  No 
important  event  seemed  to  have  occurred  there  for  a  long  period, 
though  mention  is  made  of  the  ingress  of  "enemies  from  the 
north."  The  Oraibi  traditions  tend  to  confirm  those  of  Shumo 
pavi.  This  story  is  that  the  first  houses  were  built  by  Bears  who 
came  froT  the  latter  place;  but  their  houses  were  afterward 

*The  ruins  ot  this  village  cover  an  area  ot  800  by  250  feet.  There  is  a  spring  near  by  in 
a  tall  red  grass,  which  grew  abundantly  there. 

iThe  Wiksrun  took  their  name  from  a  curious  ornament  worn  by  the  men.  A  piece  of 
the  leg  bone  of  a  bear,  made  hollow  and  a  stopper  fixed  in  one  end,  was  attached  to  the  fillet 
binding  of  the  hair  and  hung  down  in  front  01  the  forehead. 


154  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

destroyed  by  the  "enemies  from  the  north."  There  was  a  con 
tention  between  the  people  and  two  villages  were  built,  and  half 
way  be  ween  the  two  a  stone  monument  was  placed  to  mark  the 
boundary  of  the  land.  This  monument  still  stands.  On  the  end 
is  carved  a  huge  semblance  of  a  head  or  mask,  the  eyes  and 
mouth  being  round,  shallow  holes  with  a  black  line  painted 
around  them.* 

The  legend  of  the  Eagle  people  introduces  them  from  the 
west,  coming  in  by  the  way  of  the  Moenkopi  water  course. 
They  found  many  people  living  in  Tusayan — at  Oraibi,  near  the 
middle  mesa,  and  near  the  east  mesa.  They  moved  to  a  large 
mound  just  east  of  Mashongnavi,  on  the  summit  of  which  they 
built  a  village.  Numerous  traces  of  small-roomed  houses  can 
still  be  seen  on  this  mound.  They  afterward  quarreled  with  this 
people  and  moved  to  the  Snake  village,  where  they  built  their 
houses.  The  land  around  the  east  mesa  was  then  at  portioned 
out  to  the  Snakes,  Horns,  Bears,  and  Eagles — each  receiving 
separate  lands  and  these  old  allotments  are  still  maintained. 

The  Sun  people  claimed  to  have  come  also  from  the  old  land 
in  the  south.  On  their  northward  migration  they  came  to  the 
valley  of  the  Colorado  Chiquito  and  found  the  Water  people 
there.  They  built  on  the  terrace  close  to  the  Squash  village  and 
spread  their  dwellings  over  the  summit.  Their  village  takes  its 
name  from  a  rock  near  by,  which  is  used  as  a  place  for  the 
deposit  of  votive  offerings.  Incoming  people  from  the  east  had 
built  the  large  village  of  Awatubi  upon  a  steep  mesa  about  nine 
miles  southeast  from  Walpi.  This  village  is  remarkable  for  the 
tragic  event,  which  occurred  late  in  history,  by  which  its  inhabi 
tants  were  entirely  destroyed. 

The  next  arrival  seemed  to  have  been  the  Asa  people,  who  in 
early  days  lived  in  the  region  of  Chama  in  New  Mexico.  They 
moved  westward  to  Santo  Domingo,  to  Laguna,  to  Acoma,  to 
Zufii,  and  finally  reached  Tusayan  by  way  of  Awatubi.  The 
Asa  people  were  among  the  last  to  arrive.  They  were  not  at 
first  permitted  to  come  up  to  Walpi,  but  for  some  valuable 
services  in  defeating  the  raids  of  the  Utes  and  the  Navajos,  they 
were  given  planting  grounds  on  the  mesa  summit;  but  after  a 
succession  of  dry  seasons,  which  caused  a  scarcity  of  food,  they 
moved  seventy  miles  northeast  of  Walpi  to  the  Canon  de  Chelley, 
where  they  built  houses  along  the  base  of  the  canon  walls,  and 
dwelt  there  for  two  or  three  generations.  Here  they  intermar 
ried  with  the  Navajos,  and  a  clan  cf  the  Navajos  is  still  named 
after  them — "the  Highhouse  people." 

The   Asa  people   returned   to   Walpi   and  found   the   houses 

*This  monument  reminds  us  of  the  stones  which  are  found  in  France  with  the  eyes, 
mouth  and  breasts  carved  upon  them  to  represent  the  female  divinity.  They  also  remind 
us  of  the  custom  which  survived  in  historic  times;  for  the  ancient  Roman  termini  were  also 
marked  with  human  faces.  See  L'Anthropologie,  Tome  V.,  No.  2,  March  and  April,  1894, 
p.  1^6  and  176. 


•>m  "Canyons  of  the  Colorado' 


TRAIL  UP  THE   MESA  AT  WALPI. 


By  Flood  &  VI 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  157 

occupied.  They  were  taken  into  the  village  of  Walpi.  but  were 
given  a  vacant  strip  on  the  east  side  of  the  mesa,  where  the  main 
trail  came  up  to  the  village.  The  Ute,  Navajo  and  Apache  had 
frequently  gained  entrance  to  the  village  by  this  trail,  and  to 
guard  it  the  Asa  people  built  a  house'  group  along  the  edge  of 
the  cliff  at  that  point,  immediately  overlooking  the  trail,  where 
some  of  the  people  still  live,  and  the  kiva  there,  now  used  by 
the  Snake  order,  belongs  to  them.  (See  plate.)  There  was  a 
crevice  in  the  rock,  with  a  smooth  bottom  extending  to  the  edge 
of  the  cliff  and  deep  enough  for  a  kikoli.  A  wall  was  built  to 
close  the  outer  edge,  and  it  was  at  first  intended  to  build  a 
dwelling-house  there,  but  it  was  afterward  excavated  to  its  pres 
ent  size  and  made  into  a  kiva. 

The  last  to  arrive  was  the  "Water  Family."  In  the  story  of 
their  wanderings,  reference  is  made  to  their  various  villages  in 
the  south,  and  to  the  rocks  where  they  carved  their  totems. 
Their  story  is  as  follows: 

In  the  long-  ago  me  people  lived  in  the  distant  south,  but  were  bad. 
The  divinity,  Baholikonga,  got  angry  and  turned  the  world  upside  down 
and  water  spouted  up  through  the  kivas  and  through  the  fire-places  in  the 
houses.  The  earth  was  rent  in  great  chasms  and  water  covered  everything 
except  one  narrow  ridge  of  mud,  and  across  this  the  serpent  deity  told  all 
the  people  to  travel.  As  they  journeyed  across  the  feet  of  the  bad  slipped 
and  they  fell  into  the  dark  water;  but  the  good,  after  many  days,  reached 
dry  land.  While  the  water  was  rising  around  the  village  the  old  people  got 
on  the  tops  of  the  houses,  for  they  thought  they  could  not  struggle  across 
with  the  younger  people;  but  Baholikonga  clothed  them  with  the  skins  of 
turkeys  and  they  spread  their  wings  out  and  floated  in  the  air  just  above 
the  surface  of  the  water,  and  in  this  way  they  got  across.  The  turkey  tail 
dragged  in  the  water,  hence  the  white  on  the  turkey  tail  now.  Wearing 
these  turkey  skins  is  the  reason  why  old  people  have  dewlap^  under  the 
chin,  like  a  turkey;  it  is  also  the  reason  why  old  people  use  turkey  feathers 
at  the  religious  ceremonies. 

The  Water  people  formerjy  lived  south  of  the  Apache  country,  where 
they  built  large  houses  and  painted  the  rain  clouds  on  the  rocks.  When 
they  traveled  north  they  came  to  the  Little  Colorado  near  the  San  Francisco 
Mountains.  Here  they  built  houses,  made  long  ditches  to  carry  the  water 
from  the  river  totheii  gardens.  Here  they  were  tormented  with  ^and  flies, 
which  forced  them  to  resume  their  travels.  They  began  a  long  journey  to 
the  summit  of  the  table-land  on  the  north.  They  camped  for  rest  on  one  of 
the  terraces  where  there  was  no  water.  Here  the  women  celebrated  the 
rain  feast.  They  danced  for  three  days  and  on  the  fourth  day  the  clouds 
brought  them  a  heavy  rain. 

The  following  is  the  legend:  The  Walpi  came  to  visit  us  and  asked  us 
to  come  to  their  land  and  live  with  them.  It  was  planting  time  when  we 
arrived.  The  Walpi  celebrated  their  rain  feast,  but  brought  only  a  mere 
misty  drizzle.  Then  we  celebrated  our  rain  feast  and  planted.  Great  rains 
and  thunder  and  lightning  followed,  and  the  first  day  after  planting  our  corn 
was  half-arm's  length  in  height,  the  fourth  day  it  was  its  full  height,  and  in 
one  more  it  was  ripe.  When  we  were  going  up  to  the  village  of  Walpi  we 
were  met  by  a  Bear-man,  who  said  that  our  thunder  frightened  their  women 
and  we  must  not  go  near.  After  we  got  to  the  village  the  Walpi  women 
screamed  out  against  us,  and  so  the  Walpi  turned  us  away.  "Then  our 
people  traveled  northward  until  they  came  to  the  Tsegi  in  the  Canon  de 
Chelly,  but  they  came  back  and  built  nouses  and  have  lived  here  ever  since." 

It  was  during  their  sojourn  in  Canon  de  Chelly  that  the  terri 
ble  destruction  of  Awatubi  occurred.  This  took  place  at  a  time 


158  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

of  the  feast,  when  the  youths  who  had  been  qualified  by  certain 
ordeals,  were  admitted  to  councils.  At  these  ceremonies  every 
man  must  be  in  the  kiva  to  which  he  belongs,  as  they  last  several 
days,  and  the  concluding  night  special  rites  are  held.  The 
Walpis  on  this  night  crept  up  the  steep  trail  to  the  summit  and 
stole  around  the  village  to  the  courts  holding  the  kivas.  They 
snatched  up  the  ladders  through  the  hatchways,  which  was  their 
only  means  of  exit.  They  threw  bundles  oi  fire  into  the  kivas 
and  piles  of  fire-wood  were  thrown  upon  the  blaze  until  each 
kiva  became  a  furnace.  They  cast  red  pepper  upon  the  fire  and 
stood  showering  their  arrows  into  the  mass  of  struggling  vic 
tims.  The  date  of  this  massacre  was  1692. 

Such  is  the  traditional  history  of  the  Tusayans.  Its  import 
ance  will  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  it  accounts  for  the  location  of 
many  ot  the  pueblos  and  the  ruins  which  are  near  them.  It  also 
explains  many  of  the  customs  which  still  prevail,  and  throws 
much  light  upon  the  architecture  of  the  region,  which  is  generally 
correlated  to  the  customs  and  myths. 

II.  We  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  the  various  pueblos, 
which  were  built  and  are  still  occupied  by  the  Tusayans. 
Let  us  take  the  location  of  the  pueblos.  On  this  we  must 
acknowledge  our  indebtedness  to  Mr.  Mindeleff,  who  made  a  re 
port  of  a  survey  of  the  pueblos  to  the  Ethnological  Bureau.  He 
says  the  plateaux  of  Tusayan  are  generally  diversified  by  canons 
and  buttes,  which  have  remarkable  similarity  of  appearance. 
The  arid  character  of  the  district  is  especially  pronounced.  The 
occasional  springs  are  found  generally  at  great  distances  apart, 
which  occur  in  obscure  nooks,  reached  by  tortuous  trails.  The 
series  of  promontories  or  mesas  are  exceptionally  rich  in  these 
springs.  The  ruins  described  comprise  but  a  few  of  those  found 
in  the  province.  They  were  surveyed  and  recorded  for  the  sake 
of  the  light  that  they  might  throw  upon  the  relation  of  the 
modern  pueblos  to  the  innumerable  stone  buildings  of  unknown 
date,  so  widely  distributed  over  the  plateau  country.  In  taking 
up  the  descriptions  which  are  given  by  Mr.  Mindeleff,  we  shall 
notice:  (i.)  The  location  of  the  pueblos  near  some  spring  or 
water  course.  (2.)  The  proximity  to  peculiar  objects  in  the  land 
scape,  such  as  columns  of  sandstone,  about  which  traditions  and 
myths  were  supposed  to  linger.  (3.)  The  trails  which  led  across 
the  country  and  connected  the  villages  with  one  another. 
(4.)  The  presence  of  high,  isolated  mesas  or  rocks,  which  serve 
for  defenses  in  case  of  prolonged  attack.  (5.)  The  peculiar 
arrangement  of  the  buildings  around  an  enclosed  court.  (6.)  The 
presence  of  the  kiva  near  the  court.  Mr.  Mindeleff  takes  the 
villages  in  their  order,  but  shows  that  the  elements  prevail  in 
each. 

I.  Walpi  — Of  all  the  pueblos  occupied  or  in  ruins  within  the 
provinces  of  Tusayan  or  Cibola,  Walpi  exhibits  the  widest 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  159 

departure  from  the  typical  arrangement.  The  confused  arrange 
ment  of  the  rooms,  mainly  due  to  the  irregularities  of  the  site, 
contrasts  with  the  regularity  of  some  of  the  other  villages,  and 
has  no  comparison  with  most  of  the  "ancient  works."  The  gen 
eral  plan  confirms  the  traditional  accounts  of  its  foundation. 
According  to  these  its  growth  was  gradual,  beginning  with  a 
few  small  clusters,  which  were  added  to  from  time  to  time,  the 
site  having  been  chosen  on  account  of  its  favorable  position  as 
an  outlook  over  the  fields.  Yet  even  here  an  imperfect  example 
of  a  typical  enclosed  court  may  be  found  at  the  point  where  the 
principal  kiva,  or  ceremonial  chamber  of  the  village,  is  situated. 
An  unique  feature  in  this  kiva  is  its  connection  with  a  second 
subterranean  chamber,  which  is  said  to  connect  with  an  upper 
room  within  the  cluster  of  dwellings.  The  rocky  mesa  summit 
is  quite  irregular  in  this  vicinity.  The  kiva  is  subterranean  and 
was  built  in  an  accidental  break  in  a  sandstone.  On  the  very 
margin  of  this  fissure  stands  a  curious  isolated  rock,  which  has 
survived  the  general  erosions  of  the  mesa.*  It  is  near  this  rock 
that  the  celebrated  snake  dance  takes  place,  although  the  kiva 
from  which  the  dancers  emerge  to  perform  the  open-air  cere 
mony  is  not  adjacent  to  this  monument.  A  short  distance 
farther  toward  the  north  occur  a  group  of  three  more  kivas. 
These  are  on  the  very  brink  of  the  mesa  and  have  been  built  in 
recesses  in  the  crowning  ledge  of  sandstone  of  such  size  that  they 
could  conveniently  be  walled  up  on  the  outside,  the  outer  surface 
of  rude  walls  being  continuous  with  the  precipitious  rock  face  of 
the  mesa. 

The  positions  of  all  these  ceremonial  chambers  seem  to  cor 
respond  with  exceptionally  rough  and  broken  portions  of  the 
mesa  top,  showing  that  their  location  in  relation  to  the  dwelling 
clusters  was  due  largely  to  accident  and  does  not  possess  the 
significance  that  position  does  in  many  ancient  pueblos  built  on 
level  and  unincumbered  sites,  where  the  adjustment  was  not  con 
trolled  by  the  character  of  the  surface. 

The  Walpi  promontory  is  so  abrupt  and  difficult  of  access 
that  there  is  no  trail  by  which  horses  can  be  brought  to  the  vil 
lage  without  passing  through  Hano  and  Sichumovi,  traversing 
the  whole  length  of  the  mesa  tongue,  and  crossing  a  rough 
break  or  depression  in  the  mesa  summit  close  to  the  village. 
Several  foot  trails  give  access  to  the  village,  partly  over  the 
nearly  perpendicular  faces  of  rock.  All  of  these  have  required 
to  be  artificially  improved  in  order  to  render  them  practicable. 
The  plate  from  a  photograph  illustrates  one  of  these  trails, 
which,  a  portion  of  the  way,  leads  up  between  a  huge  detached 
slab  of  sand-stone  and  the  face  of  the  mesa.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  trail  at  this  point  consists,  to  a  large  extent,  of  stone  steps 

*See  Plate.  This  is  the  rock  which  appears  so  conspicuously  in  all  representations  of 
he  snake  dance.  The  kiva  may  be  seen  close  by  and  the  stamvay  to  the  valley  in  front  of  it. 


160  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

that  have  been  built  in.  At  the  top  of  the  flight  of  steps,  where 
the  trail  to  the  mesa  summit  turns  to  the  right,  the  solid  sand 
stone  has  been  pecked  out  so  as  to  furnish  a  series  of  foot-holes, 
or  steps,  with  no  projection  or  hold  of  any  kind  alongside. 
There  are  several  trails  on  the  west  side  of  the  mesa  leading 
down  both  from  Walpi  and  Sichumovi  to  a  spring  below,  which 
are  quite  as  abrupt  as  the  example  illustrated.  All  the  water 
used  in  these  villages,  except  such  as  is  caught  during  showers 
in  the  basin  like  water  pockets  of  the  mesa  top,  is  laboriously 
brought  up  these  trails  in  large  earthenware  canteens  slung  over 
the  backs  of  the  women. 

Supplies  of  every  kind,  provisions,  harvested  crops,  fuel  etc., 
are  brought  up  these  steep  trails,  and  often  from  a  distance  of 
several  miles,  yet  these  conservative  people  tenacious  y  cling  to 
the  inconvenient  situation  selected  by  their  fathers  lo^g  after  the 
necessity  for  so  doing  has  passed  aw?y 

2,  Mashongnavi. — This  was  originally  near  a  large  isolated 
rock  known  as  the  "giant's  chair;"  but  the  present  village  was 
built  against  a  broad  massive  ledge  of  sandstone  and  is  conformed 
to  the  site  as  closely  as  Shupolavi,  which  is  seen  in  the  distance.* 
It  is  a  compact,  but  irregular  village  and  conforms  to  the  general 
outline  of  the  available  ground.  The  eastern  portion  of  the 
village  forms  a  more  decided  court  than  do  the  other  portions. 
One  uniform  gray  tint,  with  only  slight  local  variations  in 
character  and  finish  of  masonry,  imparts  a  monotonous  effect  of 
antiquity  to  the  whole  mass  of  dwellings  By  far  the  largest 
number  of  pueblos  if  occupied  for  any  length  of  time  must  have 
been  subject  to  irregular  enlargement  A  few  ancient  examples 
are  so  symmetrical  in  their  arrangement  that  they  seem  to  be 
the  result  of  a  single  effort.  Another  feature  that  suggests 
greater  antiquity  is  the  names  of  the  occurrence  of  the  kiva  here; 
for  the  builders  evidently  sought  to  secure  its  enclosure  within 
the  court,  thus  conforming  to  the  typical  pueblo  arrangement. 
The  general  view  given  of  Mashongnavi,  as  well  as  that  of  its 
neighbor,  Shupolavi,  was  not  particularly  defensible;  and  this 
fact  secured  adherence  to  the  first  plan  of  the  pueblo,  which  was 
built  with  the  defensive  inclosed  court  containing  the  ceremonial 
chamber.  The  other  courts  were  added  as  the  village  grew. 
Each  added  row  facing  toward  the  back  of  ah  older  row,  pro 
ducing  a  series  of  courts  with  the  terraces  on  the  western  sides, 
carry  out  a  fixed  plan.  This  was  the  case  at  the  pueblo  Bonito 
on  the  Chaco,  where  the  even  curve  of  the  exterior  defensive 
wall,  four  stories  high,  remained  unbroken,  where  the  large 
inclosed  court  was  surrounded  by  the  wings.  See  plates  which 
illustrate  this.  In  the  case  of  Mashongnavi  the  enlargement  of 

*  The  presence  of  the  sand-stone  column  is  significant,  for  it  would  seem  as  though  many 
of  the  pueblos  were  located  near  such  objects  conveying  the  idea  that  there  was  a  sacred- 
ness  about  them. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  161 

the  pueblo  was  at  various  supposed  periods;  but  the  original 
building  followed  the  plan  of  making  the  outer  walls  a  defense, 
while  the  inner  walls  were  arranged  in  terraces  surrounding  an 
enclosure.  Nearly  all  the  dwelling  apartments  open  in  wards 
upon  the  enclosure. 

The  arrangement  of  dwellings  about  a  court  characteristic  of 
the  ancient  pueblos  continued.  Their  clustering  seems  to  have 
gone  on  around  the  center.  Although  a  street  or  passage-way 
intervenes,  it  is  covered  with  two  or  three  terraces,  the  upper 
part  having  an  insecure  foundation.*  The  general  view  of  this 
village  strikingly  illustrates  the  blending  of  the  rectangular 
forms  with  the  angular  and  sharply  defined  features  of  the  sur 
rounding  rock,  and  the  correspondence  is  greatly  heightened  by 
the  similarity  in  color.  Mr.  Stephen  has  called  attention  to  this 
in  the  case  of  Walpi,  where  the  buildings  come  to  the  very 
mesa's  ed^e,  and  in  their  vertical  lines  appear  to  carry  out  the 
effect  of  the  vertical  fissures  in  the  upper  benches  of  sandstone. 
He  thought  that  this  indicated  a  distinct  effort  at  concealment 
on  the  part  of  the  builders.  Such  correspondence  with  the 
surroundings  forms  a  striking  feature  of  many  primitive  types  of 
construction. f  This  is  illustrated  in  the  case  ot  Mashongnari 
and  Shupolavi,  which,  when  seen  at  a  distance,  can  hardly  be 
distinguished  from  the  rocks  from  which  they  are  built. 

3.  The  pueblo  of  Shupolavi  is  the  smallest  of  the   Tusayan 
group  and  illustrates  the  supposed  use   and    principles    of   an 
inclosed  court.     The  plan  of  this  village  shows  three  covered 
passage-ways  similar  to  those  noted  in  Walpi.     "Its    presence 
may  be  due  to  a  determination  to  adhere  to  the  plan  of  a  pro 
tected  court  while  seeking  to  secure  convenient  means  of  access 
to  the  enclosed  area."     Mr.  Mindeleff  speaks  of  the  Zuni  pueblo 
as  having  a  number  of  these  covered  passage-ways.     He  says 
the  highest  type  of  pueblo  construction  embodied  in  the  large 
communal  houses  of  the  valleys  could  have  developed  only  as 
the  builders  learned  to  rely  for  protection  upon  their  architecture, 
and  less  upon  the  sites  occupied.     The  Zunis  seemed  to  adhere 
to  their  valley  pueblo  through  great  difficulties. 

4.  Shumopavi,  compared  with  the  other  villages,  shows  less 
evidence  of  having  been  built  on  the  open  court  idea,  as  the 
partial  enclosures  assume  such   elongated  forms,  with  straight 
rows  of  rooms.     An  examination  shows  that  the  idea  was  present 
to  a  slight  extent.     At  the  southeast  corner  of  the  pueblo  there 
is  a  very  marked  approach  to  the  open  court,  though  the  eastern 
most  row  has  its  back  to  the  court.     Two  covered  passages  give 
access  to  the  southeast  portion  of  the  court.     The  kivas  are  four 
in  number,  of  which  but  one  is  within  the  village.     Three  kivas 
are  subterranean,  and  in  order  to  obtain  a  suitable  site  near  the 

*See  Plate  showing  passage-way  at  Walpi. 

fSee  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1886-87,  P-  72. 


162  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

mesa's  edge,  are  located  at  a  distance  from  the  village  itself. 
The  stonework  of  the  village  possesses  somewhat  a  distinct 
character.  The  masonry  resembles  ancient  work.  Shumopavi 
is  the  successor  of  an  older  village,  the  ruins  of  which  still  exist. 

5.  Oraibi  is  one  of  the  largest  modern  pueblos  and  contains 
nearly  half  of  the   population  of  Tusayan.     The  general  plan 
shows  a  large  collection  of  typical  Tusayan  house,  rows  which 
faced  eastward.     The  rarity  of  covered  passage  ways  in  this  vil 
lage  is  noteworthy  and  emphasizes  the  difference  between  the 
Tusayan  and  Zufii  ground  plans.     The  occupation  of  a  defensive 
site  has,  in  a  measure,  taken  the  place  of  a  special  defensive 
arrangement  or  a  close  clustering  of  rooms.     Further  contrast  is 
afforded  by  the  different  manner  in  which  the  roof-openings  have 
been  employed.     In  the  Zufii  a  number  of  openings  were  intended 
for  the  admission  of  light,  a  few  only  provided  with  ladders.    In 
Oraibi  not  more  than  half  were  intended  for  light. 

6.  Moenkopi.     About  fifty   miles  west  of  Oraibi  is  a  small 
settlement  used  by  a  few  families  during  the  farming  season. 
Here  a  large  area  of  fertile  soil  can  be  conveniently  irrigated 
from  copious  springs  in  the  side  of  a  small  branch.     The  village 
occupies  a  knoll  at  the  junction  of  the  branch  with  the  main 
wash. 

This  review  of  the  Tusayan  villages  has  its  bearing  upon  the 
traditionary  history  of  all  the  pueblos.  It  shows  that  there  was 
a  uniform  style  of  building;  but  the  departure  from  this  occurred 
at  a  modern  date.  This  enables  us  to  decide  as  to  what  pueblos 
are  the  most  ancient,  It  may  be  said  that  if  we  go  away  from 
the  sites  of  Tusayan  and  Zufii  in  a  northwest  direction  we  shall 
find  in  the  Canon  de  Chelly  that  the  pueblos  were  more  ancient ; 
although  of  the  same  general  type.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  go 
to  the  west  we  shall  find  that  on  the  Rio  Gila  the  pueblos  were 
not  only  more  ancient,  but  of  a  different  type.  This  confirms 
the  traditions  which  are  extant  among  the  Tusayans.  We  shall 
need  to  take  a  larger  scope  to  understand  the  entire  history. 

III.  The  architecture  of  the  pueblos  furnishes  us  with  many 
hints  as  to  their  history,  and  confirms  these  traditions. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  peculiarities  of  this  archi 
tecture.  Several  authors  have  written  upon  this  subject  and 
given  their  opinions.  Among  them  the  first  to  be  mentioned  is 
Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan,  now  deceased.  His  theory  was  that  the 
pueblos  were  all  based  upon  a  defensive  principle,  but  with  a 
peculiar  adaptation  to  communism.  He  thinks  that  in  the  region 
of  the  San  Juan  river,  in  New  Mexico,  in  Mexico,  and  in  Central 
America,  there  was  one  connected  system  of  house  architecture 
and  substantially  one  mode  of  life.  "The  Indians  north  of  New 
Mexico  did  not  construct  their  houses  more  than  one  story  high 
or  of  more  durable  materials  than  a  frame  of  poles,  or  of  timber 
covered  with  matting,  bark  or  earth.  A  stockade  around  their 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  163 

houses  was  their  principal  protection.  In  New  Mexico  going 
southward  are  met,  for  the  first  time,  houses  constructed  with 
several  stories.  In  Yucatan  and  Central  America  Indians  in 
their  architecture  were  in  advance.  Next  to  them  were  the 
Aztecs.  Holding  the  third  position  were  the  village  Indians  of 
New  Mexico.  All  alike  depended  on  horticulture  for  subsist 
ence — cultivation  by  irrigation.  Their  houses  represent  together 
an  original  indigenous  architecture  which,  with  its  diversities, 
sprang  out  of  their  necessities." 

Its  fundamental  element  was  the  communal  type  combined 
with  the  provisions  for  defense.  The  defenses  were  not  so  much 
to  protect  the  village  Indians  from  one  another  as  from  the 
attacks  of  migrating  bands  flowing  down  upon  them  from  the 
north. 

He  further  says  that  "the  progress  of  improvement  in 
architecture  seems  to  have  been  from  smaller  to  larger  rooms 
followed  by  a  reduction  of  the  size  of  the  house  in  ground  dimen 
sions."  "An  examination  of  some  very  old  ruins  in  New  Mexico 
east  of  the  Rio  Grande  near  Santo  Domingo  reveals  the  fact  that 
the  pueblo  was  more  like  a  cluster  of  cells  than  of  rooms,  as 
many  of  them  were  but  four  or  five  feet  square  and  contrasted 
strongly  with  the  present  inhabited  pueblos." 

Mr.  Morgan  thinks  an  early  seat  of  Indian  village  life  was  in 
the  San  Juan  district,  in  the  valley  of  the  Chaco  on  the  Animas 
River,  in  the  Montezuma  Valley,  on  the  Hovenweep,  on  the  Rio 
Dolores.  And  here  was  the  most  ancient  development  of  ancient 
village  life  in  America.  Cave-dwellings  or  cliff-houses  are  in  the 
San  Juan  district,  the  most  of  them  being  on  the  Mancos  River. 
He  further  says  it  is  probable  that  the  original  ancestors  of  the 
principal  tribes  of  Mexico,  Yucatan  and  Central  America  once 
inhabited  the  San  Juan  district,  and  the  Mound-builders  may 
have  come  from  the  same  country,  and  as  proof  he  refers  to  the 
current  tradition  that  these  people  painted  their  original  home 
in  the  manner  of  a  cave  and  they  came  out  of  seven  caves  to 
people  the  country  of  Mexico.  The  evidence  of  occupation  and 
cultivation  through  the  greater  part  of  this  area  is  sufficient  to 
suggest  that  the  Indian  here  first  attained  the  middle  status  of 
barbarism,  and  sent  forth  migrating  bands  who  carried  this 
advanced  culture  to  the  Mississippi  Valley,  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  and  not  unlikely  to  South  America.  They  planted 
gardens  and  constructed  houses  as  they  advanced  from  district 
to  district,  and  moved  as  circumstances  prompted,  their  migrations 
continuing  through  centuries  of  time. 

There  is  a  plausibility  to  Mr.  Morgan's  views,  especially  when 
we  consider  that  the  southern  Mound-builders  built  their  houses 
upon  terraced  pyramids,  which  \\ere  often  arranged  around  an 
enclosed  court  The  Aztecs  also  built  their  palaces  around  an 
enclosed  court,  and  placed  their  temples  in  sacred  enclosures, 


164  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

making  the  terraced  pyramid  their  typical  structure.  This  is 
regarded  by  some  as  an  evidence  that  the  tribes  of  the  south 
west  were  all  of  the  Malayan  stock,  and  it  is  conjectured  that 
possibly  the  style  may  have  been  introduced  from  the  southeast 
of  Asia.  We  may,  at  least,  say  that  the  style  of  architecture 
was  entirely  different  from  that  which  prevailed  among  the  wild 
tribes  of  the  north,  for  these  never  built  their  houses  in  terraces 
and  rarely  made  their  villages  to  enclose  a  court,  the  majority  of 
them  having  rude  tents,  which  were  built  on  the  ground  and 
placed  in  rows,  sometimes  with  a  stockade  surrounding  them 

Still,  Mr.  Cosmos  Mindeleff  says  the  pueblo  architecture  was 
intimately  connected  with  and  dependent  upon  the  country 
where  its  remains  are  found.  The  limits  of  this  country  are 
coincident  with  the  boundaries  of  the  plateau  region — so  much 
so  that  a  map  of  the  latter  would  serve  to  show  the  former. 

Tsegi  is  almost  in  the  center  of  this  country.  The  ruins  show 
several  periods  of  occupation,  which  may  be  classified  as  follows: 
I.  Old  villages  on  open  sites.  2.  Home  villages  on  bottom 
lands.  3.  Villages  located  for  defense.  4.  Cliff  outlooks.  By 
the  study  of  the  cliff  ruins  we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
are  connected  with  and  inhabited  at  the  same  time  as  a  number  of 
larger  home  villages.* 

These  structures  are  typical  of  all  the  aboriginal  houses  in  . 
New  Mexico.  They  show  two  principal  features — the  terraced 
form  of  architecture,  with  the  housetops  as  the  social  gathering 
places  of  the  inmates,  and  a  closed  ground  story  for  safety. 
Every  house  is,  therefore,  a  fortress.  Mr.  Mindeleff  says  of  the 
ceremonials  connected  with  the  house-building:  The  material 
having  been  accumulated,  the  builder  goes  to  the  village  chief, 
who  prepares  for  him  four  small  eagle  feathers.  The  chief  ties 
a  short  cotton  string  to  the  stem  of  each,  sprinkles  them  with 
votive  meal,  and  breathes  upon  them  his  prayers  for  the  welfare 
of  the  proposed  house  and  its  occupants.  These  feathers  are 
called  Nakwakwoci,  a  term  meaning  a  breathed  prayer,  and  the 
prayers  are  addressed  to  Masauwu,  the  sun,  and  to  other  deities 
concerned  in  houselife.  These  feathers  are  placed  at  the  four 
corners  of  the  house  and  a  large  stone  is  laid  over  each  of  them. 
The  builder  then  decides  where  the  door  is  to  be  located,  and 
marks  the  place  by  setting  some  food  on  each  side  of  it;  he  then 
passes  arourid  the  site  from  right  to  left,  sprinkling  piki  crumbs 
and  other  particles  of  food,  mixed  with  native  tobacco,  along  the 
lines  to  be  occupied  by  the  walls.  As  he  sprinkles  this  offering 
he  sings  to  the  sun  his  Kitdauwi,  house  song:  "Si-ai,  a-hi,  si-ai, 
a-hai."  The  meaning  of  these  words  the  people  have  now  for 
gotten.  The  house  being  completed,  the  builder  prepares  four 
feathers  and  ties  them  to  a  short  piece  of  willow,  the  end  of 

*  See  American  Anthropologist,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  p   153. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  165 

of  which  is  inserted  over  one  of  the  central  roof  houses. 
The  feathers  are  renewed  every  year,  at  a  feast  celebrated  in 
December  when  the  sun  begins  to  turn  northward,  thus  show 
ing  that  the  history  of  the  house  was  to  be  connected  with  the 
heavens  and  the  course  of  the  sun. 

This  dedication  of  a  house,  by  placing  feathers  under  the 
rafters,  among  the  Tusayans,  is  paralleled  by  the  dedication  of 
the  kivas  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  on  the  Chaco.  The 
kiva  was  always  characterized  by  a  circular  wall  forming  a  room, 
the  roof  of  which  is  usually  below  the  level  of  the  surrounding 
rooms.  At  the  base  of  this  wall  is  a  bench  of  solid  masonry, 
from  two  to  four  feet  high,  which  projects  from  two  to  three 
feet  into  the  room.  On  the  bench  are  six  piers,  or  blocks  of 
masonry,  which  represent  the  pillars  of  the  sky.  The  niches 
between  the  piers  and  the  projecting  ledge  represent  the  circuit 
of  the  earth.  The  orifice  in  the  centre  of  the  kiva,  called  the 
sipapuh,  represents  the  "  place  of  emergence." 

A  recent  discovery  by  Mr.  George  H.  Pepper  in  the  Pueblo 
Bonito,  shows  that  there  were  ceremonial  deposits  in  the  kivas. 
These  deposits  were  placed  on  the  top  of  the  pillars  and  below 
the  roof  beams.  In  this  case,  they  consisted  of  turquoise, 
pieces  of  crude  shell,  and  turquoise  in  the  matrix.  Materials 
of  this  nature  are  generally  considered  to  be  sacrifices.  They 
were  placed  exactly  under  the  six  points,  where  the  lowest  roof 
beams  rested  on  the  pillars,  and  literally  supported  the  entire 
roof,  and  so  must  have  had  a  peculiar  significance.* 

The  kivas  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  according  to  Mr.  Norden- 
skjold,  were  also  constructed  in  the  same  way,  and  it  is  probable 
that  offerings  were  made  to  the  divinities,  at  the  time  that  they 
were  constructed.  VVe  see,  then,  from  these  customs,  that  there 
was  a  unity  among  all  the  tribes  of  the  Pueblos  and  of  the 
Cliff-Dwellers,  and  that  all  were  organized  into  tribes  and 
gentes,  which  had  the  same  mode  of  government,  the  same 
religious  customs,  and  probably  the  same  mythology. 

IV.  We  turn  now  to  the  different  periods  which  are  repre 
sented  by  the  Cliff-Dwellers  and  Pueblos  alike.  These  are  some 
what  difficult  to  make  out,  but,  judging  from  the  traditions,  the 
relics,  the  ruins,  the  pictographs,  and  other  tokens,  we  should 
divide  them,  as  follows:  First,  the  period  in  which  the  earliest 
pueblos  were  erected,  a  period  which  is  marked  by  the  very 
rude  cliff-dwellings.  To  this  period  we  would  ascribe  the  cliff- 
dwellings  near  the  Red  Rocks,  which  are  given  the  names  of 
Palatki,  Halonka,  and  Bear  House.  These  are  the  rudest 
specimens  which  have  been  discovered,  though  they  have  the 
bulging  bow-window  fronts  which  characterize  some  of  the 
cliff-dwe'lings  farther  north,  especially  that  at  Monarch's  Cave 
in  Utah.  To  this  period,  also,  we  ascribe  the  bouldei  sites 
and  the  irrigating  ditches.  The  ancient  walls,  which  are  found 

*  See  "  Monumental  Records,"  Vol.  I.,  No.  i,  page  5.  ( 


1 66 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


in  the  cliff-dwellings  of  the  San  Juan,  where  there  are  no  irri 
gating  ditches,  also  belong  to  this  period. 

The  second  period  was  the  one  in  which  the  wild  tribes  in 
vaded  the  Pueblo,  territory  and  drove  those  who  were  dwelling 
in  the  pueblos  from  their  homes,  and  compelled  them  to  build 
their  houses  high  up  in  the  cliffs,  and  compelled  others  to  con 
struct  walls  about  their  pueblos.  This  was  the  Cliff-Dwellers' 
period,  for  in  it  most  of  the  cliff-dwellings  were  erected.  It 
preceded  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards. 

The  third  period  began  after  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  continued  up  to  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  was  marked  by 
the  appearance  of  a  large  number  of  cathedrals  and  churches, 
and  by  the  concentration  of 
the  pueblos  into  prominent 
centres.  This  was  a  period  in 
which  many  of  the  pueblos 
went  to  ruins;  among  them 
those  east  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
Pecos,  and  the  three  pueblos 
which  have  been  called  "  the 
cities  that  were  forgotten," 
namely,  Tabira,  Cuaras,  and 
Abo.  Of  these,  Tabira  was 
the  most  prominent.  Here 
was  a  cathedral,  which  is  now 
in  ruins,  but  which  was,  at  one 
time,  a  fine  specimen  of  archi 
tecture.  The  entrance,  with  the 
carved  lintel,  is  represented  in 
the  cut.  The  place  was  known 
as  "Gran  Quivira."  It  was  one 
of  the  larger  pueblos  and  had, 
perhaps,  1,500  inhabitants.  A 
long,  narrow  array  of  three- 
and  four  -  storied  terraced 
houses,  facing  each  other 
across  the  valley;  six  circular 
estufas,  partly  subteranean, 

were  characteristic  of  it.  These  pueblos  went  to  ruins  under  the 
attacks  of  the  Apaches,  combined  with  the  oppression  of  the 
priests.  There  were  three  great  churches,  extensive  convents, 
large  reservoirs,  rimmed  with  stone,  to  catch  and  hold  the  rain 
and  snow;  but  the  plain  was  an  utter  desert,  and  the  cities  were 
abandoned. 

The  fourth  and  last  period  has  been  marked  by  the  erection 
of  many  modern  pueblos,  and  by  the  introduction  of  modern 
furniture  into  the  houses,  by  the  change  of  the  dress  and  the 
appearance  of  the  Pueblos  themselves. 

The  plates  show  the  structures  which  belong  to  these  dif 
ferent  periods.  One  of  these  represents  Taos,  with  its  ancient 


CHURCH   AT   TABIRA. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  167 

walls,  irrigating  ditches;  its  terraced  buildings,  erected  in  the 
pyramidal  form — one  on  either  side  of  the  stream;  a  pueblo 
which  probably  was  erected  in  prehistoric  times.  Another 
plate  represents  Hano,  one  of  the  seven  pueblos  of  Tusayan, 
with  its  courts,  its  kiva,  its  terrace,  flat  roofs,  and  the  mesa  ad 
joining.  This  is  a  modern  structure,  and  is  not  as  well  built  as 
the  ancient.  The  third  plate  represents  the  interior  of  a  Tusayan 
house,  with  its  modern-shaped  fire-place,  with  chimney  and 
chimney-hood;  its  stone  floor;  its  ollas,  or  water-jars,  which 
were  always  kept  filled;  its  pottery  bowls;  also,  its  metates,  or 
mills  for  grinding  meal.  The  woven  blankets,  thrown  over  the 
pole,  are  evidently  modern,  as  are  also  the  windows  and  other 
furnishings.  Another  plate  represents  a  modern  room  in  a 
Zuni  pueblo,  with  a  door  and  window  and  chimney  and  couch, 
all  of  which  were  evidently  borrowed  from  white  men  of  recent 
date.  The  dress  of  the  women  is  partly  modern  and  partly 
ancient.  The  style  of  leaving  one  shoulder  out  is  ancient,  but 
the  drapery  is  otherwise  modern.  The  bowls  and  jars  are  of 
modern  construction.  The  two  plates  represent  the  latest 
period. 

The  history  of  these  different  periods  can  not  be  fully  made 
out,  though  there  are  traditions  which  connect  them  closely. 
There  seem  to  have  been  movements  among  the  tribes  before 
the  advent  of  the  Spaniards.  The  most  of  them  were  caused 
by  the  incursions  of  the  wild  tribes,  especially  the  Apaches. 
This  is  illustrated  by  the  map  which  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Oscar 
Loew,  and  which  represents  the  pueblo  region,  with  the  tribes 
distributed  according  to  their  languages,  and  the  tribal  bound 
aries  drawn  from  such  data  as  could  be  gained.  Another  map, 
prepared  by  Major  Powell  and  published  in  the  Second  Annual 
Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  represents  several  classes 
of  structures,  namely,  the  inhabited,  abandoned,  and  ruined 
pueblos,  cavate  houses,  cliff  houses,  and  towers.  Both  maps 
show  that  the  Pueblos  once  inhabited  the  entire  region  between 
the  Colorado  on  the  west  and  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  east;  the 
Rio  San  Juan  on  the  north  and  the  Gila  on  the  south,  and  that 
they  then  had  entire  possession  of  the  territory.  They  show 
that  the  tribes  on  the  northern  and  southern  borders  were 
driven  toward  the  centre,  and  that  the  abandoned  territory  was 
occupied  by  the  various  wild  tribes,  such  as  the  Apaches, 
Comanches,  Utes,  etc.  Most  of  the  pueblos  were  left  to  go  to 
ruins. 

Traditions  show  that  in  prehistoric  times  the  tribes  moved 
from  one  part  of  the  territory  to  the  other,  and  it  is  a  singular 
fact  that  the  inhabited  pueblos  are  all  found  on  the  route  which 
was  taken  by  the  Spaniards  on  their  first  advent  in  1540,  and 
that  all  ot  the  region  surrounding,  is  without  any  tribal  division, 
and  marked  only  by  the  sites  of  ruins,  though,  if  we  take  the 
ruins  in  evidence,  we  might  construct  a  map  which  would  show 
the  location  of  other  tribes;  those  on  the  Chaqo  indicating  the, 


1 68  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

habitat  of  one  tribe;  those  on  the  San  Juan,  of  another;  those 
on  the  Rio  de  Chelly,  of  still  another.  It  is  probable  that  the 
pueblos  of  the  Tusayans  were  the  last  resort  for  these  tribes, 
when  they  were  driven  out,  as  they  were  situated  in  the  centre 
and  were  secure  from  invasion  because  of  their  location  upon 
the  mesas. 

It  appears  that  their  clans  were  mingled  with  those  of  the 
Tusayans  and  occupied  apartments  in  the  Tusayan  villages. 
This  is  shown  by  a  map  which  has  been  prepared  by  Mr. 
Mincleleff,  from  information  furnished  by  Mr.  A.  L.  Stephens. 
Me  says: 

In  the  older  and  more  symmetrical  examples  there  was  doubless  some 
effort  to  distribute  the  various  gentes,  or,  at  least,  the  phratries.  in  definite 
quarters  of  the  village,  as  stated  traditionally.  At  the  present  day,  how 
ever,  there  is  little  trace  of  such  localization.  In  the  case  of  Oraibi,  the 
largest  of  the  Tusayan  villages,  Mr.  Stephens  has  with  great  care  and 
patience  ascertained  the  distribution  of  the  various  gentes  in  the  village. 
The  only  trace  of  a  traditional  village  pUn,  or  arrangement  of  contiguous 
houses,  is  found  in  a  meager  mention  in  some  of  the  traditions  that  rows  of 
houses  were  built  to  enclose  the  court  and  to  form  an  aopropriate  place  tor 
the  public  dances  and  processions  of  masked  dancers.  No  definite  ground- 
plan,  however,  is  ascribed  to  these  traditional  court  enclosing  houses, 
although  at  one  period  in  the  evolution  of  this  defensive  type  of  architecture 
they  must  have  partaken  somewhat  of  the  symmetrical  grouping  found  on 
the  Rio  Chaco  and  elsewhere. 

The  Zunis  and  the  Tusayans  belong  to  distinct  linguistic  stocks,  but 
they  are  not  so  very  closely  related.  The  migrations  of  the  Tusayan  clans, 
as  described  in  the  legends,  were  slow  and  tedious.  While  they  pursued 
their  wanderings  and  awaited  the  favorable  omens  of  the  gods,  they  hal'ed 
at  places  on  their  route  during  a  certain  number  of  "plantings."  always 
building  the  characteristic  stone  pueblos.  The  tribe  to-day  seems  to  be 
made  up  of  a  confederacy  of  many  enfeebled  remmants  of  independent 
phratries  and  groups,  once  more  numerous  and  powerful.  The  members  of 
each  phratry  have  their  own  store  of  traditions  relating  to  the  wanderings 
of  their  own  ancestors,  which  differ  from  those  of  other  clans,  and  refer  to 
villages  successively  built  and  occupied  by  them. 

The  architectural  and  traditional  evidence  establishes  a  continuity  of 
descent  from  the  ancient  Pueblos  tothose  of  the  present  day.  The  adaptation 
of  the  architecture  to  the  peculiar  environment,  indicates  that  it  has  long 
been  practiced  under  the  same  conditions  that  now  prevail.  The  pueblo 
population  was  probably  subjected  to  the  necessity  of  defence  throughout  the 
whole  period  of  their  occupation  of  the  territory.  They  were  stimulated 
by  the  difficult  conditions  of  their  environment,  and  by  constant  necessity 
for  protection  against  their  neighbors,  to  make  the  best  use  of  the  materials 
about  them;  but  the  various  steps  or  stages  of  growth  from  the  primitive 
conical  lodge  to  the  culmination  in  the  large  communal  village  of  many- 
storied,  terraced  buildings,  can  be  traced  in  the  ruins.  The  results  attest 
the  patience  and  industry  of  the  ancient  builders,  but  the  work  does  not 
display  great  skill  in  construction,  or  in  the  preparation  of  material.  The 
appearance  depended  on  the  careful  selection  and  arrangement  of  the 
fragments  in  the  walls,  rather  than  in  any  finished  masonry.  This  is  more 
noticeable  in  the  Chaco  ruins  than  in  modern  pueblos.  Here  the  walls  and 
the  rooms  were  wrought  to  a  high  degree  of  surface  finish. 


CHAPTER  X. 

CONTINUED. 

ANCIENT  AND  MODERN   PUEBLOS  COMPARED, 

We  now  turn  to  the  comparison  of  the  architecture  of  the 
ancient  and  modern  pueblos. 

We  have  shown,  elsewhere,  that  there  were  several  districts, 
each  one  of  which  was  characterized  by  a  different  style  of 
building.  Those  of  the  central  districts  on  the  Zuni  and  Chaco 
rivers,  were  erected  in  terraces  around  a  court  with  the  apart 
ments  close  together,  after  the  "  honey-comb"  pattern  ;  those  in 
the  district  on  the  Rio  Gila  were  separate  buildings,  scattered  over 
a  level  valley  along  the  side  of  irrigating  canals,  with  one  large 
building,  which  might  be  called  a  "castle"  or  "citadel"  in  the 
centre  of  the  village;  those  situated  to  the  southeast  presented  a 
combination  of  the  "  cavate  house  "  and  the  pueblo,  as  there  are 
many  caves  in  this  region  and  near  them  the  ruins  of  ancient 
pueblos.  On  the  Rio  Grande  the  style  was  to  build  in  terraces 
around  the  four  sides  of  a  court,  or  on  two  sides  of  a  stream, 
with  the  stream  draining  the  court.  On  the  Rio  San  Juan  there 
was  a  great  diversity  of  style;  some  of  the  ruined  buildings  are 
in  the  shape  of  terraced  pueblos,  built  after  the  "  honey-comb  " 
pattern;  others  are  separate  buildings,  grouped  together,  but 
making  a  'straggling  village';  others  are  cavate  houses  with  tow 
ers  above  the  caves ;  the  typical  structures  of  this  region  are  the 
cliff-dwellings  or  cliff  villages,  which  were  built  into  the  sides  of 
the  cliffs,  and  so  arranged  that  the  court  should  be  in  the  rear  of 
the  buildings  and  the  towers  in  front  of  the  buildings,  the  whole 
group  or  line  of  structures  forming  a  compact  village,  which 
was  made  safe  from  attack  by  its  situation,  the  houses  being 
difficult  of  access. 

The  district  on  the  Kanab  and  Colorado  Rivers,  and  along 
the  Grand  Canon,  is  according  to  Maj.  Powell  characterized  by 
houses  which  were  scattered  over  the  region  near  springs  and 
streams  which  could  be  used  for  irrigation,  and  were  occupied 
during  summer  and  were  called  rancherias;  these  were  connected 
with  a  central  pueblo,  which  was  the  permanent  residence  and 
capable  of  holding  several  thousand  people  There  was  a  dis 
trict  on  the  Sonora,  in  Mexico,  in  which  the  houses  were  built 
after  the  pattern  of  the  Casa  Grande,  on  platforms  and  in  ter 
raced  pyramids.* 

*  See  Chapter  V,  p.  65.    Exploration  of  the  Pueblo  Territory. 


170  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

This  classification  of  the  pueblos  corresponds  closely  to  that 
recognized  by  the  Spaniards,  as  will  be  shown  by  the  following 
quotation  from  Castaneda:  "The  name  Chilticali,  was  given  in 
former  times  to  this  place  (Casa  Grande),  because  the  Friars 
found  in  the  neighborhood  a  people  who  came  from  Cibola. 
The  house  was  large  and  it  seemed  to  have  served  as  a  fortress. 
Up  to  Cibola,  which  lies  eighty  leagues  to  the  north,  the  country 
rises  continually.  The  province  of  Cibola  (Zuni)  contains  seven 
villages;  the  largest  was  called  Muzaque;  the  houses  of  the 
country,  ordinarily,  consist  of  three  and  four  stories,  but  at 
Muzaque  some  have  as  many  as  seven.  Twenty  leagues  to  the 
northwest  is  another  province  contaning  seven  villages  (the  Mo- 
qui  villages) ;  the  inhabitants  have  the  same  manners,  wear  the 
same  dress,  and  have  the  same  religions  as  the  inhabitants  of 
Cibola.  It  is  estimated  that  three  or  four  thousand  men  are 
distributed  among  the  villages  of  these  two  provinces.  Tiguex 
lies  to  the  northeast  at  a  distance  of  forty  leagues  from 
Cibola ;  between  these  two  provinces  is  the  rock  of  (Acuco) 
Acoma.  The  province  of  Tiguex  contains  twelve  villages  situ 
ated  on  the  banks  of  a  great  river.  It  is  a  valley  about  two 
leagues  broad.  It  is  bounded  on  the  west  by  very  high  moun 
tains  covered  with  snow.  Four  villages  are  built  at  the  foot  of 
these  mountains  and  three  on  the  heights.  Farther  north  lies 
the  province  of  Quirix,  which  contains  seven  villages.  Seven 
leagues  to  the  northeast  is  the  province  of  Hemes  (Jemez),  which 
contains  the  same  number.  Forty  leagues  in  the  same  direction 
lies  Acha  (Chaco).  Four  leagues  to  the  southeast  is  situated 
the  province  of  Tutehaco,  which  contains  eight  villages." 

The  following  survive  some  of  them  in  modern  style:  Cibola 
seven  villages;  Tusayan  seven;  the  Rock  of  Acuco  one; 
Tiguex  twelve;  Tutehaco  eight,  reached  by  descending  the 
river;  Querix  seven ;  among  the  Snowy  mountains  seven , 
Ximena  three ;  Cicuye  one ;  Hemes  seven  ;  Aquas  Calientes 
three;  Yunque  six,  on  the  mountain;  Valladolid  or  Braba  one; 
and  Chia  one.  This  makes  seventy  in  all.  Tiguex  is  a  central 
point  and  Valladolid  is  the  last  village  up  the  river  to  the  north 
east."  The  most  of  these  villages  have  been  identified  :  Cibola 
with  Zuni,  Tusayan  with  Moqui,  Acuco  with  Acoma,  Tiguex 
with  Albuquerque,  Tutehaco  with  Tutehaco,  Quirix  with  Queres, 
Muzaque  with  Toyoalana,  Cicuye  with  Laguna,  Hemes  with 
Jemez,  Braba  with  Taos,  Chia  with  Sia.  The  Cliff-dwellings  in 
the  Mesa  Verde  and  the  ruined  buildings  on  the  San  Juan,  and 
on  the  Rio  de  Chelley,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  known  to  the 
Spaniards ;  at  least,  they  are  not  mentioned. 

A  description  of  the  village  of  Laguna,  given  by  Castaneda,  in 
1540,  will  show  to  us  what  its  style  of  architecture  was  at  that 
time :  "  The  village  of  Cicuye  can  muster  about  five  hundred 
warriors,  dreaded  by  all  their  neighbors.  It  is  built  on  the  top 


u. 

O  » 
u 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITETURE.  171 

of  a  rock  and  forms  a  great  square,  the  centre  of  which  is  occu 
pied  by  an  open  space  containing  the  estufas.  The  houses  have 
four  stories,  with  terraced  roofs,  all  of  the  same  height,  on  which 
one  can  make  a  circuit  of  the  whole  village  without  finding  a 
street  to  bar  one's  progress.  On  the  first  two  stories  there  are 
corridors,  like  balconies,  on  which  you  may  walk  around  the 
village  and  under  which  you  may  find  shelter.  The  houses  have 
no  doors  in  the  basement;  the  balconies,  which  are  on  the  in 
side  of  the  village,  are  reached  by  ladders,  which  may  be  drawn 
up.  It  is  on  these  balconies,  which  take  the  place  of  streets, 
that  all  the  doors  open  by  which  entrance  is  gained  to  the 
houses.  The  houses  that  front  on  the  plain,  stand  back  to  back 
with  the  others  which  look  upon  the  court.  The  latter  are 
the  higher,  a  c  rcumstance  of  great  service  in  time  of  war.  The 
village  is  further  surrounded  by  a  rather  low  wall.  There  is  a 
spring,  which  might,  however,  be  turned  off  from  the  village." 

As  to  the  manner  of  building  the  pueblos,  Castaneda  says: 
"  The  houses  are  built  in  common;  it  is  the  women  that  mix 
the  mortar  and  erect  the  walls ;  the  men  bring  the  timbers  and 
do  the  joinery.  They  have  no  lime,  but  have  a  mixture  of 
ashes,  earth  and  charcoal,  which  replaces  it  very  well,  for  though 
they  build  their  houses  to  the  height  of  four  stories,  the  walls 
are  no  more  than  one-half  of  a  fathom  thick.  They  collect  great 
heaps  of  thyme  and  rushes,  and  set  them  on  ^re;  when  this 
mass  is  reduced  to  ashes  and  charcoal,  they  cast  a  great  quan 
tity  of  earth  and  water  upon  it  and  mix  the  whole  together; 
they  coat  the  whole  wall  with  this  mixture,  so  it  bears  no  little 
resemblance  to  a  structure  of  masonry."  As  to  the  estufas, 
Castaneda  says ;  •'  They  lie  underground  in  the  court  yards  ot 
the  village ;  some  of  them  are  square  and  some  of  them  round ; 
the  roof  is  supported  »by  pillars  made  of  pine  trunks.  I  have 
seen  estufas  of  twelve  pillars  each,  of  two  fathoms  in  circumfer 
ence,  but  usually  there  are  only  four.  They  are  paved  with 
large,  polished  stones,  like  baths  in  Europe:  In  the  centre  is  a 
hearth  on  which  a  fire  burns,  and  a  handful  of  thyme  is  now  and 
then  thrown  on  the  fire ;  this  is  enough  to  keep  up  the  warmth, 
so  that  one  feels  as  if  in  a  bath ;  the  roof  is  on  a  level  with  the 
ground.  The  houses  belong  to  the  women,  the  estufas  to  the 
men." 

There,  are  traditions  among  the  Tusayans  which  make  men 
tion  of  all  of  these  pueblos,  and  show  the  migrations  which  took 
place  towards  the  central  province,  thus  giving  a  history  of  the 
entire  region.  These  traditions  have  been  gathered  by  Mr.  A. 
M.  Stephen.  The  following  is  the  summary  of  them,  with  the 
names  of  the  totems ;  The  Snake  people  and  the  Bear  people 
came  from  the  north  by  way  of  the  Rio  de  Chelley ;  the  Horn 
people  from  the  Rio  Grande,  also  by  way  of  the  Rio  de  Chel 
ley  f  the  Squash  and  Sun  people  from  the  red  land  of  the  west, 


172  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

by  way  of  the  Colorado  Chiquito;  the  Water  people  from  the 
far  south,  by  way  of  the  Little  Colorado,  where  they  had  ir 
rigating  canals ;  the  Asa  people  came  from  Rio  Chama,  by  way 
of  San  Domingo,  Laguna,  Acoma  and  Zuni ;  the  Hano  people 
from  the  Rio  Grande,  by  the  river  de  Chelley,  and  settled  at 
Hano;  the  Payup-ki  people  came  from  the  north,  from  the  San 
Juan  river.  They  first  moved  to  the  Jemez  mountains  where 
they  remained  until  the  Spanish  Massacre  in  1680;  they  then 
moved  west  to  Ft.  VVingate,  and  so  on,  to  the  Tusayans,  and  set 
tled  at  Pay-up-ki. 

This  same  division  of  the  Pueblo  territory  is  exhibited  by  the 
languages  used  by  the  surviving  tribes 

According  to  F.  W.  Hodge  the  Pueblo  languages  are  divided 
into  five  stocks,  as  follows  :  (i)  Tanoan,  including  Tano,  Tewa, 
Tiwa,  Jemez  and  Piro,all  situated  on  the  Rio  Grande.  (2)  Kere- 
san,  these  occupy  the  Pueblos  of  Acoma,  Laguna,  Sia,  Santa 
Anna,  San  Felipe,  Santo  Domingo  and  Cochiti  Cochiti.  (3) 
The  Zunian  stock,  which  occupy  the  Pueblos  of  Zuni.  (4)  The 
Shoshonean  stock  occupy  the  Tusayan  towns  of  Walpi,  Mas- 
hongnavi,  Shipaulovi,  Shumopavi,  Oraibi.  (5)  The  Pimas  oc 
cupied  the  Rio  Gila.  (6)  The  Papagoes  occupied  the  province 
of  Sonora,  Mexico. 

These  records  confirm  the  traditions  preserved  by  the  Indians 
and  show  that  there  were  different  tribes  in  the  pueblo  territory; 
that  they  came  from  different  directions,  were  of  different  origin, 
settled  in  different  districts  and  had  a  separate  and  distinct  tribal 
history  —  a  history  which  we  may  read  in  the  architecture,  art, 
and  other  tokens  of  the  district. 

It  is  indeed  a  favorable  field  for  one  who  is  given  to  theorizing 
to  make  out  a  history  of  the  progress  of  architecture,  and  to  show 
that  the  caves  were  the  first  abodes,  after  them  the  cliff- dwellings, 
after  the  cliff  dwellings,  the  fortresses  on  the  Mesas,  alter  these 
the  "great  houses"  or  pueblos  in  the  valleys,  the  pattern  being. 
drawn  from  the  shape  of  the  Mesas,  or  if  this  fails,  to  advance 
another  theory.  The  primeval  abode  was  the  hut,  the  shape  of 
which  is  preserved  in  the  solitary  houses;  the  next  stage  is  marked 
by  the  clusters  of  huts  in  a  straggling  village;  the  third  by 
compacting  the  apartments  into  one  great  house. 

These  theories  are  very  plausible,  but  history  does  not  con 
firm  them,  for  the  fact  is,  the  caves  were  inhabited  quite  as  late 
as  the  pueblos,  by  tribes  whose  names  and  migrations  are  known. 
The  Cliff-dwellings  were  erected  after  the  ruined  pueblos  in  the 
same  region,  and  by  a  people  who  once  occupied  the  ruins,  but 
were  compelled  to  leave  them  and  resort  to  the  cliffs  for  defence. 

The  pueblos  of  the  central  district  were  the  final  resort  of  the 
tribes,  who  built  both  the  Cliff-dwellings  and  pueblos,  but  were 

*lt  may  be  difficult  to  fix  upon  the  boundaries  of  these  provinces,  yet  if  we  examine  the 
ruins  whidh  predominate,  we  may  not  only  decide  as  to  the  tribal  habitat  but  even  learn 
much  of  the  tribal  history. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  173 

driven  by  the  Apaches  and  other  wild  tribes  from  their  ancient 
homes  and  compelled  to  concentrate  their  settlements  here,  for 
the  sake  of  defense. 

There  are,  indeed,  great  similarities  between  the  structures 
of  the  different  districts,  for  all  contain  the  same  elements,  meet 
the  same  necessities  and  seem  to  have  been  erected  by  a  people 
of  the  same  grade  of  advancement.  Yet  there  are  differences 
enough  to  show  that  the  people  were  divided  into  tribes,  and 
that  each  tribe  had  its  own  ancient  habitat,  and  left  in  its 
habitat  those  tokens  by  which  we  may  recognize  them  as  plain 
ly  as  if  they  were  still  living  and  appeared  before  us  in  their 
usual  costumes ;  and  speaking  their  original  languages  and 
were  practicing  their  tribal  customs.  This  may  seem  to  be  a 
strong  statement,  yet  if  the  science  of  archaeology  as  distin 
guished  from  ethnology  is  worth  anything,  it  ought  to  enable  us 
to  travel  through  such  a  region  as  this,  and  learn  the  char 
acter  and  the  condition  of  the  people  as  clearly  as  we  could  if  we 
were  in  the  midst  of  living  tribes.  We  do  not  need  to  confine 
ourselves  to  the  architecture  of  the  region,  for  there  are  many 
other  tokens,  such  as  the  different  specimens  of  pottery,  the  vari 
ous  relics  in  stone,  bone  and  wood,  textile  fabrics,  occasionally 
idols  and  images,  skulls  and  human  remains,  and  what  is  more 
important  the  petroglyphs1  or  rock  inscriptions  which  contain 
the  tribal  emblems  or  clan  totems.  All  of  these  exhibit  the  tri 
bal  divisions.  While  there  was  a  similar  mode  of  life,  a  similar 
grade  of  society,  a  similar  tribal  organization,  there  are  evidences 
that  the  different  tribes  inhabited  the  river  valleys  and  developed 
styles  of  architecture  peculiar  to  themselves. 

It  may  be  well,  then,  for  us  to  take  these  ancient  pueblos 
and  make  them  our  special  study,*  for  by  this  means  we  shall 
be  able  to  trace  the  tribal  history  back  to  pre-historic  times. 

There  may  have  been  a  succession  of  population  in  each  prov 
ince,  some  of  them  having  been  lower,  others  higher,  in  the 
scale  of  progress,  but  in  many  of  the  provinces  we  find  that  the 
last  to  occupy  the  region  were  the  lowest,  the  wild  tribes  such  as 
the  Pimas*  Navajoes,  Apaches,  having  succeeded  those  who  were 
sedentary  in  their  habits  and  more  advanced  in  their  civilization. 
It  is  the  middle  period  of  occupation  which  most  interests  us, 
for  in  this  period  all  of  the  elements  of  Pueblo  life  appeared. 

1  The  Petroglyphs  of  the  different  provinces  seem  to  differ,  as  will  be  seen  from  examining 
descriptions  given  by  W.  H.  Holmes,  Dr.  Washington  Matthews  and  others.    The  pottery 
found  in  the  different  river  valleys  has  diyerse  patterns  and  material,  according  to  its 
age,  the  black  and  white,  which  is  generally  considered  the  oldest,  being  found  only  in  cer 
tain  exceptional  districts. 

2  The  following  are  the  names  which  have  been  given  to  the  different  buildings  to  des 
cribe  their  style,  each  name  showing  the  characteristic  of  the  architecture  in  the  different 
provinces :  (i)  The  great  house,  of  the  honeycomb  pattern,  is  illustrated  by  the  Zuni  Pueb 
los,  but  prevailed  throughout  the  entire  region.    (2)  The  '*  citadel "  pattern  is  illustrated 
by  the  ruins  of  Casa  Grande  on  the  Gila,  Casas  Grandes^  in  Sonora,  Mexico. 

Some  have  maintained  that  the  Pimas  are  the  survivors  of  the  people  who  built  Casa 
Grande  and  the  Navajoes  are  the  survivors  of  those  who  built  the  Cliff  dwellings,  but  the 
contrast  between  the  rude  tents  which  they  occupy  and  the  stone  buildings  seems  to  contro 
vert  it. 


174 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


The  analysis  of  the  architecture  of  this  period  reveals  certain 
features1  which  are  common  throughout  the  entire  region,  thus 
making  it  probable  that  there  was  a  growth  and  development  of 
what  might  be  called  the  Pueblo  style  entirely  separate  and  dis 
tinct  from  every  other.  Yet  it  was  a  growth  which  came  from 
and  was  best  adapted  to  the  domestic  life,  the  tribal  organiza 
tion  and  the  peculiar  customs  of  each  tribe. 

It  is  everywhere  recorded  that  the  "  house  "  belonged  to  the 
women  but  the  Kivas  belonged  to  the  men.  The  men  dwelt 
apart  from  the  women.  As  a  result  we  find  that  the  houses 
were  always  arranged  with  the  domestic  apartments  closely 
grouped  and  compacted,  the  security  and  convenience  of  the 


FIG.  1.     VIEWOFMASHOGNAVI  AND  SHUPOLAVI 


(3)  The  ''two  house"  pattern  is  illustrated  by  the  Pueblo  Taos  and  the  ruin  on  Animas 
River 

The  "  two  house  "  pattern  may  have  been  used  for  the  two  parts  of  a  "  phratry  "  as  has 
been  suggested  by  Wa  ter  J  Fewkes,  the  two  sections  ot  the  Cliff-houseon  the  Rio  Verde, 
having  been  used  for  that  purpose. 

(4>  The  "  Cliff  house  "  pattern  is  illustrated  by  ruins  found  on  the  Mancos,  Rio  de  Chelley 
and  the  Rio  Verde  in  Arizona. 

(5)  The  "cavate  house  "  is  represented  by  specfmens  described  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  on 
the  San  Juan,  and  by  Major  Powell  and  others  as  on  the  Rio  Dolores  and  on  the  Rio 
Grande. 

(6)  The  '•  small  house  "  pattern  is  illustrated  by  the  solitary  houses,  numerous  lodgings, 
situated  mostly  among  the  mountains. 

(7)  "Straggling  villages  "  is  a  term  applied  to  various  sites  wherever  the  houses  are  scat 
tered. 

(81  The  "boulder  sites"  are  found  mainly  on  thp  Rio  Verde  near  ancient  Acequias.  These, 
however,  are  not  characteristic  of  any  tribe  or  province  9  "  Round  towns  "  are  found  in 
rums  in  the  Moqui  and  Zuni  territory. 

i  These  features  were  such  as  pertained  to  village  life  everywhere,  for  the  villages  in  the 
Mississippi  valley  belonging  to  Mound-builders  and  Indians,  had  courts,  estufas,  store 
houses,  towers  or  look-out  stations,  occasionally  terraced  pyramids  and  apartments  or  dwell 
ing  places,  clustered  close  together,  very  much  as  the  Pueblos  did.  They  were  also  sur 
rounded  by  garden  beds  and  reservoirs. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  175 

families  being  the  chief  object.  The  Kiva  usually  adjoined  the 
Pueblo,  being  placed  in  the  courts. 

Among  the  Cliff  dwellers,  as  we  have  seen,  the  domestic  apart 
ments,  were  placed  high  up  on  the  cliffs,  and  the  Kivas  or  assembly 
places  and  towers,  were  placed  in  the  valley  below.  In  the  case 
of  the  Cave-dwellers,  they  were  on  the  summit  of  the  Mesas, 
above  the  caves,  but  the  principle  was  the  same,  still  the  Kiva  was 
a  part  of  the  village,  but  was  for  the  men. 

The  store  houses  were  always  close  by  the  domestic  apart 
ments.  In  the  Pueblos  they  were  in  the  lower  story  and  were 
always  dark,  and  reached  through  trap-doors  in  the  apart 
ments. 

In  the  Cavate  houses  the  store-rooms  were  at  the  side  of  the 
living  rooms,  in  apartments  which  were  excavated  farther  into 
the  cliff,  and  were  consequently  dark  and  unpleasant.  In  the 
cliff  houses  the  store-rooms  were  placed  on  a  ledge  above  the 
living  rooms,  but  sometimes  were  scattered  along  the  cliffs  in 
the  little  recesses,  pockets,  cubby  holes,  which  could  be  found  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  house. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  ancient  pueblo  was  that  it  represented 
a  peculiar  stage  of  advancement,  that  stage  in  which  architecture 
began  to  be  developed  and  in  which  the  rudiments  of  art  also 
appeared.  The  houses  which  were  erected  contained  all  the 
architectural  elements,  found  in  any  modern  dwelling,  such 
as  walls,  doorways,  windows,  roofs,  dormitories  and  kitch 
ens,  and  in  this  respect  would  differ  from  the  wild  tribes  who 
dwelt  only  in  tents  or  wigwams.1  They  differed,  however,  from 
one  another  in  the  finish  of  the  walls,  the  shape  of  the  doors,  the 
size  and  arrangement  of  the  rooms,  in  the  site  chosen,  and  in  the 
material2  used,  each  district  presenting  pueblos,8  which,  in  these 
respects,  were  peculiar,  but  in  other  respects,  were  similar. 

1  The  most  common  method  was -to  erect  a  compact  pueblo,  in  the  valleys  of  the  streams 
and  near  the  fields  placing  the  apa-tments  close  together  and  making  the  walls  serve  as  a 
defense,  there  being  no  doors  in  the  lower  story,  and  the  homes  of  the  people  were  in  the 
upper  stories. 

2  The  material    from  which  thft  houses  were  built  depended  upon  the  character  of  the 
country  surrounding:,  as  Mr.    Fewkes  says,  "men  of  the  same  culture  would  build  adobe 
ho  ses  in  adobe  plains   in  tufaceous   they  would  burrow  troglodytic caves;  in  the  canons 
where  there  were  extensive  she  ter  caves  they  would  build  Cliff-houses, while  upon  the  rocky 
mesas  and  in  the  mountaiu  regions  they  would  naturally  bu'ld  stone  houses,  'aking  the  stone 
from  the  cliffs  and  makinr  the  terraces  to  resemble  those  of  the  mesas  "    This  would  show 
that  the  people  were  greatly  under  the  influence  of  their  environments  but  does  not  refute 
the  position  that  there  werp  tribal  lines  or  inherited  qualities  which  can  be  recognized  in  the 
structures  and  art  forms  which  remain. 

In  reference  to  the  pottery  we  might  quote  the  testimony  of  Nordenskjo'd,  Holmes  and  oth 
ers  as  to  the  different  kinds  of  pottery  found  in  the  different  provinces.  The  black  and 
white  pottery  is  vi-ry  common  in  the  northern  and  western  provinces  and  among  the  older 
ruins,  but  the  red  pottery  is  in  the  central  provinces  and  among  the  more  modern  pueblos. 

3  The  pueblo  structures  were  confined  to  the  Great  Plateau.   A'l  the  structures  outside  of 
the  bounds  having  a  different  pattern  and  different  material,  those  at  the  north  and  west  be 
ing  merely  hut*  built  of  wood  and  bark  ;  those  at  the  south  being  constructed  of  stone,  built 
up  as  solid  pyramids  without  any  chambers  in  them,  the  houses  and  temples  having  been 
placed  upon  the  summit;  those  at  the  east  being  mainly  wigwams  of  bark  and  skin,  or  huts 
covered  with  earth,  the  Mound-builders  houses  having  been  erected  on  earth  pyramids. 

Buildings  made  from  adobe  were  discovered  by  VV.  K.  Moorehead  in  Monarch's  Cave, 
near  Cotton  Wood,  in  Utah,  constructed  exactly  the  same  as  those  on  the  Gila  with  posts 
and  wattle-work.  Adobe  walls  appeared  in  some  of  the  buildings  on  the  Rio  Grande. 


176  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Specimens  of  the  different  styles1  are  given  in  the  cuts:  Fig  i 
illustrating  the  location;  Fig.  2  the  finish  of  the  walls;  Fig.  3 
the  shape  of  some  ot  the  buildings ;  Fig.  4  the  shape  of  the 
rooms;  Figs.  5-6  the  shapes  of  the  doors  and  windows;  Fig.  7 
the  location  of  the  estufas  ;  Figs.  8-9  the  location  of  the  towers 
and  other  buildings. 

The  fashion  of  the  doorways  varied  in  the  different  provinces, 
for  those  on  the  Gila  had  sloping  sides  and  narrow  lintels,  while 
those  of  the  Cliff  dwellers  were  built  in  the  stepped  fashion,  the 
sides  notched,  the  lintels,  much  broader  than  the  sills  ;  those  on 
the  Rio  Grande  were  sometirns  square  and  sometimes  stepped. 

There  were  courts,  streets,  passageways,  gates,  and  even 
balconies,  terraces  and  circumvallations,  in  nearly  all  of  the 
villages,  but  the  arrangement  of  these  was  dependent  upon 


FIG.  2.     ANCIENT  RUINS  ON  THE  ANIMAS  * 

the  character  of  the  ground  on  which  the  building  stood.  As 
to  the  location  of  the  villages  this  would  be  decided  by  circum 
stances. 

i  The  style  represented  by  Casa  Grande,  on  the  Gila,  is  found  in  Casas  Grandes  in  Chi- 
huahua,  these  being  extreme  points  at  which  the  Adobe  structures  are  found  ;  the  Cavate 
style  is  represented  by  the  houses  on  the  Salado  on  the  Rio  Verde  and  on  the  Rio  Grande 
near  Santa  Clara,  as  well  as  in  Sonora,  in  Mexico.  The  small  house  pattern  is  found  mainly 
among  the  mountains,  specimens  being  numerous  near  the  Rio  Grande  and  near  the  Rib 
Colorado,  some  of  them  being  built  of  stone  and  others  of  lava  blocks. 

*  Lieut.  Rogers  Birnie  says  of  these  ruins  :  "We  found  what  had  once  been  quite  a  town, 
with  two  main  buildings  (phratry  dwellings).  One  of  them  was  rectangular  with  a  small 
court  flanked  on  either  side  by  two  circular  rooms,  two  at  the  corners,  three  parallel  with 
the  longer  side  of  the  building  the  remainder  ot  the  building  divided  into  rectangular  apart 
ments,  three  stories  high,  a  wall,  quite  'perfect,  standing  in  places  25  feet  in  height.  Enter 
ing  a  room  in  ruins  it  was  found  connected  with  an  interior  one  by  a  doorway  4  ft.  4  in.  high 
and  2  ft.  and  4  in.  wide,  cased  with  nicely  dressed  sandstone  about  the  size  of  an  ordinary 
brick;  the  lintel  was  composed  of  small  round  pieces  of  wood,  the  walls,  were  2  ft.  5  in.  thick 
marked  with  crosses  and  inscriptions.  The  interior  room  was  14  ft.  by  6  ft.  4  in.  In  the 
center  of  the  building  was  a  rectangular  shaft  S  ft.  by  6  ft. 

The  other  main  building  is  about  200  yards  to  the  west  of  this  and  about  200  feet  long  and 
regularly  supported  on  the  exterior  by  buttresses.  Above  the  buttresses  the  exterior  wall 
shows  some  very  pretty  architectural  designs.  There  is  seen  a  projecting  cornice,  plain, 
composed  of  three  or  four  courses  of  very  thin  reddish  sand-stone,  and  again  a  course  of 
nearly  white  stone,  perhaps  a  foot  thick,  then  other  courses  of  different  shades  and  thick 
nesses,  alternate. 

The  entire  masonry  is  built  of  courses  of  different  thicknesses  of  stone  of  different  colors. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 


177 


There  were  certain  necessities  which  must  be  met,  but  in  an 
arid  region  like  this,  were  difficult  to  provide  for.  As  a  result, 
great  sagacity  was  exercised  in  the  choice  of  the  location  and 
great  skill  in  over-coming  the  difficulties.  The  villages  were 
placed  near  springs  where  there  was  an  abundant  supply  of 
water  and  not  very  distant  from  the  forests  where  wood  could 
be  obtained. 

Near  the  villages  were  fertile  bottom  lands  or  arroyas,  which 
could  be  irrigated,  the  water  for  this  being  taken  from  the  me 
sas  or  from  the  reservoirs  above,  or  from  the  streams  and  rivers 
below  the  villages  ;  canals  or  acequias  were  always  provided  for 
directing  and  controlling  the  water;  garden  beds  sometimes  took 
the  place  of  acequias  and  answered  the  same  purpose. 

There  would  naturally  be  some  provision  for  defense  as  the 
people  were  surrounded  by  hostile  tribes  and  were  not  always 
friendly  to  one  another. 


FIG.  3.     VIEW  OF  CASA  GRANDE 

It  has  been  maintained  by  some  that  to  build  a  separate  fort 
ress  was  beyond  the  reach  of  a  people  of  this  stage  of  advance 
ment,  but  the  facts  are  contrary  to  the  theory.  ' 

i  Bancroft  states  "  that  at  Casas  Grandes.  in  Chihuahua,  there  was  a  fortress  built  of 
great  stones  as  large  as  mill-stones.  The  beams  of  the  roof  were  pine  well  worked.  In  the 
center  was  a  mound  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  guard  and  watching  the  enemy.  It  was  lo 
cated  two  leagues  away,  on  the  top  of  a  high  ciiff.  and  was  designed  as  a  watch  tower  or 
central  station."  His  account  is  taken  from  a  writer  in  Album  Mexieano,  who  visited 
Casas  Grandes  in  1842.  The  ruin  Cassas  Grandes  was  located  upon  a  finely  chosen  site 
commanding  a  broad  view  of  the  San  Maguel  River.  The  walls  in  some  parts  were  5  feet 
thick  and  from  5  to  40  feet  high,  composed  of  sun-dried  bricks.  See  Bancroft's  Native 
Races,  Vol.  V,  page  606. 

Walter  J.  Fewkes  speaks  of  fortified  hill-tops  in  the  neighborhood  of  Red  Rocks,  also 
among  the  mountains  of  Arizona. 

McGee  speaks  of  one  in  the  Magdalena  valley  in  Sonora,  Mexico. 


178 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


There  were  several  ways  of  defending  the  villages.  One  was 
to  place  the  villages  or  pueblos  on  mesas  that  were  difficult  of 
access  ;  another  was  to  place  them  in  the  sides  of  the  cliff  mak 
ing  the  height  a  source  or  safety  ;  another  was  to  build  a  citadel 
in  the  center  of  the  village  and  surround  it  by  walls  and  make 
it  serve  as  a  refuge  for  the  people  in  time  of  attack.  In  a  few 
cases  there  were  walled  enclosures  erected  on  the  summits  of 
the  isolated  mesas  and  these  were  used  both  for  lookouts  and 
fortresses. 


FIG.  4.     EAST  WALL  OF  NORTH  ROOM 

That  there  were  migrations  among  the  tribes,1  in  pre-historic 

i  The  question  of  kinship  may  be  determined  by  the  ruins  which  extend  along  certain 
lines,  for  if  we  can  show  connections  at  both  ends  of  a  line  of  habitation,  we  may  draw  in 
ferences  for  the  intermediaries.  In  tuis  way  the  Cliff-dwellings  at  Red  Rock  on  the  Rio 
\  erde  and  those  on  the  Mancos,  the  citadels  on  the  Gila  and  on  the  Sonora  ;  the  "  great 
houses"  at  Zum  and  on  the  San  Juan,  the  two  houses  at  Taos  and  at  Quivira  determined  the 
tribal  boundaries. 

The  survivors  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  were  found  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  central  districts 
But  by  studying  their  traditions  we  may  trace  their  migration  routes,  and  identify  their 
stopping  places,  and  so  learn  the  movements  which  have  taken  place,  but  the  differences  in 
the  architecture  are,  in  all  such  cases,  far  more  significant  than  their  resemblances  for  they 
show  the  previous  tribal  history  and  the  tribal  wanderings, 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 


179 


times,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  houses  built  in  the  style  pe 
culiar  to  each  province  are  tound  at  a  distance  from  the  center, 
the  houses  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  having  been  found  as  far  away 
as  the  Red  Rock  on  the  Rio  Verde.  The  houses  similar  to 
those  on  the  Rio  Grande  are  found  as  far  west  as  the  Hoven- 
weep. 

With  these  remarks  we  proceed  to  describe  some  of  the  speci 
mens  of  ancient  pueblos. 

We  begin  with  the  ruins  of  Casa  Grande  on  the  Rio  Gila. 
These  were  the  first  visited  by  the  Spaniards,  and  have  recently 
been  visited  by  American  explorers,  and  have  become  well 
known. 

The  following  description,  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Fewkes,  will  show 
the  style  of  the  building: 


•Fie.  5.     NORTH  WALL  OF  NORTH  ROOM 

"This  venerable  ruin,  which  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  best  of  its  type  in 
the  United  States,  is  of  great  interest  in  shedding  light  on  the  architecture 
of  several  of  the  ruined  pueblos  which  are  found  in  such  numbers  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Gila  and  Salt  Rivers.  The  importance  of  its  preservation 
from  the  hands  of  vandals  and  from  decay  led  Mr.  Hemingway  and  others, 
of  Boston,  to  petition  Congress  for  an  appropriation  for  this  purpose.3  The 
petition  was  favorably  acted  upon.  The  ruin  now  stands  in  the  midst  of 
others,  towering  high  above  thrm.  It  is  roofless,  and  not  a  stick  of  wood 
as  large  as  one's  arm  remains  in  place  in  its  walls.  It  is  built  of  cubical 
adobe  blocks  several  feet  in  dimensions.  It  did  not  stand  alone  originally, 
but  there  were  other  houses  of  the  same  massive  construction  near  by.  One 
of  the  best  marked  of  these  is  a  group  of  houses  a  few  hundred  feet  north. 

3  The  Government  has  made  an  appropriation,  so  that  the  building  at  Casa  Grande  will  be 
preserved. 


180 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


There  are  also  others  to  the  north-east ;  they  are  covered  with  fragments  of 
pottery  of  ancient  appearance,  which  show  that  they  are  on  the  sites  of 
former  buildings.  At  about  equal  distances  from  the  four  sides  of  the  Casa 
Grande  there  are  mounds,  which  indicate  the  existence  of  former  walls, 
and  seem  to  mark  the  edge  of  the  pueblo,  in  the  middle  of  which  it  once 
rose  like  an  acropolis  or  citadel.  As  one  approaches  the  ruin  along  the 
stage  road  from  the  side  towards  Florence,  he  is  impressed  with  the  solidity 
and  massive  character  of  the  walls  and  the  great  simplicity  of  the  structure, 
architecturally  considered. 

The  fact  that  the  walls  of  the  middle  chamber  rise  somewhat  above  those 
of  the  peripheral  is  evident  long  before  one  approaches  the  ruin  ;  this  puts 
a  certain  pyramidal  outline  to  the  pile.  The  orientation  of  the  ruin  corre 
sponds  to  the  cardinal  points.  From  the  plan  it  will  be  seen  that  the  bound 
ing  walls  of  the  ruin  enclose  five  chambers,  which  fall  in  two  groups,  twin 
chambers,  one  at  either  end,  and  triplets  between  them  ;  the  north  and 


FIG.  6.  SOUTH  WALL  OF  NORTH  ROOM 


south  extend  wholly  across  the  building,  their  walls  forming  the  eastern 
and  the  western  sides  of  the  building,  the  three  chambers  of  the  middle 
portion  extend  in  a  north  and  south  direction  across  the  whole  building. 
All  the  chambers  of  both  kinds  have  a  rectangular  form,  and  their  angles, 
as  a  general  thing,  are  carefully  constructed  right  angles,  though  the  ver 
tical  and  horizontal  lines  are  seldom  perfectly  straight.  The  north  room 
occupies  the  whole  northern  end  of  the  ruin,  and  has  all  the  bounding  walls 
of  the  lower  storus  almost  entire  ;  the  greatest  length  of  the  room  is  from 
the  east  to  the  west.  There  are  good  evidences  of  at  least  two  stories  above 
the  present  level  of  the  ground  ;  the  western  wall  of  the  room  is  pierced  by 
a  single  circle  and  a  rectangular  window,  two  openings  lead  from  the 
chamber  into  adjoining  rooms, —  one  of  them  into  the  eastern  chamber,  the 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  181 

other  into  the  western.  The  passage-way  into  the  east  room  is  situated  on 
the  second  story,  and  is  very  conspicuous  ;  its  sides  slope  slightly,  so  that 
the  width  of  the  opening  is  wider  at  the  base.  There  is  no  passage-way  into 
the  middle  chamber.  The  west  room  of  the  middle  triplet  has  a  rectangu 
lar  shape,  its  longest  dimension  being  from  north  to  south  ;  it  has  an 
external  entrance  on  the  west  side.  There  are  indications  of  former  pass 
age-ways  into  chambers  on  either  side,  but  no  passage-way  into  the  central 
chamber. 

The  eastern  wall  of  this  chamber  is  higher  than  the  western,  making  the 
additional  story  of  a  central  chamber.  The  east  room,  like  that  on  the 
west,  is  longest  in  a  north  and  south  direction,  and  shows  at  least  two  stories 
above  the  present  level.  One  can  enter  this  room  from  the  side,  and  from 
it  can  readily  pass  into  the  central  chamber.  This  is  in  keeping  with  what 
is  known  as  ceremonial  enclosures.  The  central  room  was  a  sacred 
chamber,  it  probably  had  an  entrance  from  the  eastern  room  and  not  from 
the  others  ;  the  exterior  entrance  of  this  room  is  from  the  east,  and  was  one 
of  the  principal  entrances  into  the  building,  it  shows  well  defined  lintel 
marks.  A  wide  passage-way  from  the  second  story  into  the  north  room 
occupies  about  a  fourth  part  of  the  north  wall  ;  the  floor  groove  of  the 
second  story  is  pronounced.  The  south  wall  of  the  first  story  of  this  room 
is  intact,  there  is  a  passage-way  into  the  south  room  which  has  vertical 
jambs  still  well  preserved,  but  its  top  has  fallen  in. 

The  south  chamber  of  the  ruin  extends,  like  the  north,  across  the  whole 
end.  As  with  the  northern  rooms,  there  are  openings  into  the  western  and 
eastern  rooms,  and  no  signs  of  an  entrance  into  the  central  chamber.  The 
western  wall  of  this  room  is  pierced  by  a  small,  square  window-like  open 
ing  high  up  in  the  second  story.  From  this  side  of  the  room  one  can, 
without  difficulty,  make  out  two  stories  and  the  remnants  of  a  third  ;  the 
line  of  holes  in  which  the  floor  logs  formerly  fitted  can  be  traced  with  ease. 

The  central  chamber  differs  from  the  others,  in  that  it  shows  the  wall  of 
an  additional  story  on  all  four  sides,  and  has  but  one  entrance,  and  this  is 
from  the  eastern  side,  the  walls  are  very  smooth,  and  apparently  carefully 
polished.  There  are  well  preserved  evidences  of  the  flooring,  and  the 
smaller  sticks,  which  formerly  lay  upon  the  same,  are  beautifully  indicated 
by  rows  of  small  holes.  The  walls  of  the  third  story,  on  the  western  side, 
are  pierced  by  three  circular  openings,  about  five  inches  in  diameter,— they 
were  possibly  windows  or  possibly  "  look-outs."  On  the  east  wall  there  are 
three  small  round  holes,  on  the  north  and  south  wall  there  are  similar  open 
ings,  one  in  each  wall ;  these  openings  are,  at  times,  placed  as  high  as  the 
head  of  a  person  standing  on  the  floor  of  the  third  chamber.  They  appear 
to  be  a  characteristic  of  the  central  room  and  of  the  third  story." 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  description  and  from  the  cuts  given, 
that  the  style  of  architecture  on  the  Gila  was  very  different 
from  that  which  prevailed  among  the  pueblos  of  the  Zunis  or 
Tusayans  and  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  entirely  different  from 
that  of  the  cliff-dwellings  farther  north,  but  resembled  that 
found  in  the  so-called  "Castles  "  farther  south,  especially  those 
in  Sonora  and  in  the  north  of  Mexico;  the  ancient  forms  show 
ing  as  great  contrast  as  the  modern  structures. 

As  to  the  style  of  architecture  which  prevailed  in  the  Ciiff- 
Dvvellers  district,  we  have  already  shown  that  there  was  a  great 
diversity  of  structures,  but  the  most  prominent  style  was  that 
which  is  called  the  Cliff-Town  or  "Fortress"  style;  as  proof  of 
this  we  shall  quote  the  discriptio'ns  given  by  those  who  have 
explored  in  the  region. 

The  following  is  the  language  of  Mr.  Holmes: 

The  ruins  of  this  region,  like  most  others  of  the  extreme  west  and  south, 
are  the  remnants,  in  a  great  measure,  of  stone  structures. 


182  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

As  to  situation,  they  may  be  classed  very  properly  under  three  heads: 
(i),  Lowlands,  or  Agricultural  Settlements  ;  (2),  Cave  Dwellings;  and  (3), 
Cliff-houses,  or  Fortresses. 

Those  of  the  first  class  are  chiefly  on  the  river  bottoms,  in  close  proxim 
ity  to  water,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  most  fertile  lands,  and  located  without 
reference  to  security  or  means  of  ^defence.  Those  of  the  second  are  in  the 
vicinity  of  agricultural  lands,  but  built  in  excavations  in  low  bluff  faces  of 
the  Middle  Cretaceous  shales  The  sites  are  chosen  also,  I  imagine,  with 
reference  to  security  ;  while  the  situation  of  the  cliff-houses  is  chosen  with 
reference  to  security  only.  They  are  built  high  up  in  the  steep  and  inac 
cessible  cliffs,  and  have  the  least  possible  degree  of  convenience  to  field  or 
water. 

As  to  use.  the  position,  for  the  most  part,  determines  that.  The  lowland 
ruins  are  the  remains  of  agricultural  settlements,  built  and  occupied  much 
as  similar  villages  and  dwellings  are  occupied  by  peaceable  and  unmolested 
peoples  of  to-day.  The  cave-dwellers,  although  they  may  have  been  of  the 
same  tribe  and  contemporaneous  probably  built  with  reference  to  their 
peaceable  occupations  as  well  as  to  defence  but  it  is  impossible  to  say 
whether  or  not  they  made  these  houses  their  constant  dwelling-places.  The 
cliff  houses  could  only  have  been  used  as  places  of  refuse  and  defence. 

During  seasons  of  invasion  and  war,  families  were  probably  sent  to  them 
for  security,  while  the  warriors  defended  their  property  or 'went  forth  to 
battle  ;  and  one  can  readily  imagine  that  when  the  hour  of  total  defeat 
came,  they  served  as  a  last  report  for  a  disheartened  and  desperate  people.1 

The  first  group  of  ruins  observed  by  Mr.  Holmes  was  situ 
ated  on  the  Rio  La  Plata,  about  twenty-five  miles  above  its 
junction  with  the  San  Juan,  and  five  miles  south  of  the  New 
Mexican  line,  and  was  an  agricultural  settlement  or  a  "  strag 
gling  village  "  See  plate.  He  says  : 

It  is,  doubtless,  the  remains  of  a  large,  irregular  village,  and  stands  on  a 
low  terrace,  some  twenty  feet  above  the  river  bed,  and  near  the  center  of  a 
large,  fertile  valley.  It  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  plate,  which  in 
cludes  only  the  more  important  part  of  the  town,  that  the  buildings  have 
been  isolated,  and,  in  a  measure,  independent  of  each  other,  differing  in 
this  respect  from  most  of  the  groups  of  ruins  farther  south  and  west.  .  .  . 
North  of  this  are  scattered  a  number  of'  inferior  ruins,  the  walls  of  which 
are  not  always  distinctly  marked. 

In  the  center  of  the  ruins  is  the  circle  (c)  which  encloses  an 
estufa. 

South  of  the  large  circle  is  a  mass  of  ruins,  covering  some  15,000  square 
feet,  but  so  much  reduced  that  nothing  further  could  be  determined  than 
the  fact  that  it  had  contained  a  large  number  of  irregular  apartments.  No 
where  about  the  ruins  are  there  any  indications  of  defensive  works,  and  the 
village,  which  is  scattered  over  an  area  of  over  two  miles  in  circuit,  has  no 
natural  defences  whatever. 

Judging  from  the  state  of  the  ruins  we  conclude  that  this  vil 
lage  was  older  than  the  pueblos  on  the  Mac  Elmo  and  at  Aztec 
Springs,  and  much  older  than  the  towers  on  the  Mac  Elmo  and 
Hovenweep. 

The  second  group  of  ruins  visited  by  Mr.  Holmes  contained  a 
group  of  cave  dwellings  and  towers,  which  were  situated  en  the 
cliffs,  but  at  a  moderate  height  above  the  valley.2 


1  The  arrangement  of  the  houses  in  these  ruins  remind  us  of  the  village  of  Walpi  among 
the  Tusayans.    See  fig.  12,  p.  263. 

2  The  testimony  of  most  of  the  explorers  of  this  region  is  to  the  effect  that  the  ruins  of 
the  pueblos,  built  after  the  honey-comb  pattern,  were  much  older  than  the  cliff-towns  and 
cliff-fortresses,  and  that  they  were  much  more  elaborate,  and  presented  a  more  advanced 
type  of  architecture  than  the  modern  pueblos  of  the  Zunis  and  Moquis. 


ANCIENT  TttJINS 

on  the 

RIO  LA  PLATA. 
W.H.Holmes . 


ANCIENT  AGRICULTURAL  VILLAGE 


J  i^bb 

^~ 


UPPER  HO.CSE 

r~v\  so  by  100  t;t. 


auio 


"AZTEC  SPRING 

SOUTH  WEST  COLORADO 
W.H.Holmee 


RUINED  PUEBLO  WITH  TOWERS  AND  CENTRAL  HOUSE 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 


183 


Xf 

•<i 


"I  observed  in  approaching  that  a 
ruined  tower  stood  near  the  brink  of 
the  cliff,  at  a  point  where  it  curves 
outward  toward  the  river,  and,  study 
ing  it  with  my  glass,  detected  a  num 
ber  of  cave-like  openings  in  the  cliff 

face  about  half  way  up.     On  exami-  ,__«,„„ 

nation    I    found   that  they  had   been  MM  "     hi 

shaped   by   the   hand   of   man.     The  ' 

arched  openings  are  arched  regu 
larly  above,  and  generally  quite  shal 
low. 

The  hard  stratum  served  as  a  hard 
floor,  and,  projecting  in  many  places, 
made  a  narrow  platform,  by  which 
the  inhabitants  were  enabled  to  pass 
from  one  house  to  another  It.  is 
probable  that  they  were  waned  up  in 
front,  with  doors  and  windows,  though 
no  fragment  of  the  wall  is  preserved. 

The  engraving  gives  a  fair  repre 
sentation  of  the  appearance  of  these 
dwellings  and  their  relations  to  the 
rooms  above.  The  ruins  are  three  in 
number,  one  rectangular  and  two  cir 
cular. 

The  rectangular  is  placed  over  the 
more  northern  group  of  cave-dwell 
ings.  The  small  tower  is  situated  on 
the  brink  of  the  cliff  also,  above  the 
principal  groups  of  cave-houses. 

About  150  yards  to  the  south-west 
are  the  remains  of  another  structure, 
built  on  a  larger  and  grander  scale,  as 
the  diameter  of  the  outer  wall  was 
about  140  feet.  That  they  belong  to 
the  community  of  the  Cave-dwellers, 
and  serve  as  their  fortresses,  council- 
chambers  and  places  of  worship, 
would  seem  to  be  natural  and  reason 
able  inferences.  Being  on  the  border 
of  a  low  mesa  country,  the  strong 
outside  walls  were,  doubtless,  found 
necessary  to  prevent  incursions  from 
that  direction  ;  while  the  little  com 
munity,  by  means  of  ladders,  was 
free  to  pass  from  dwelling  to  fortress 
without  danger  of  molestation.  (See 

fig.  7-) 

A  large  group  situated  on  this 
stream,  about  10  miles  above  its 
mouth,  was  subsequently  examined. 
In  one  place  in  particular,  a  pictures 
que  out-standing  promontory  was  full 
of  dwellings,  literally  honey-combed 
by  the  earth-burrowing  race  ;  and  as 
one  from  below  views  the  ragged  win 
dow-pierced  crags,  he  is  unconsciously 
led  to  wonder  if  they  are  not  the  ruins 
ofsome  ancient  castle,  behind  whose 
mouldering  walls  are  hidden  the  dead 
secrets  of  a  long-forgotten  people.  But  a  nearer  approach  quickly  dispels 
such  fancies,  for  the  windows  prove  to  be  only  the  doorways  to  shallow  and 


184 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


irregular  apartments,  hardly  sufficiently  commodious  for  a  race  of  pigmies. 
Neither  the  outer  openings  or  the  apertures  are  large  enough  to  allow  a 
person  of  large  stature  to  pass,  and  one  is  led  to  suspect  that  these  nests 
were  not  the  dwellings  proper  of  these  people,  but  occasional  resorts  for 
women  and  children,  and  that  the  somewhat  extensive  ruins  below  were 
their  ordinary  dwelling  places.  On  the  brink  of  a  promontory  above  stands 
the  ruins  of  a  tower,  still  twelve  feet  high,  and  similar,  in  most  respects,  to 
those  already  described.  These  ruined  towers  are  very  numerous.  ' 


ANCIENT  PUEBLO  AND  RUINED  TOWERS  ON  THE  Me  ELMO 


Mr.  Holmes  also  discovered  a  group  of  ruins  which  mark  the 
site  of  an  ancient  village,  built  after  the  honey-comb  pattern, 
with  apartments  adjoining,  and  estufas,  or  circular  chambers,  in 
the  midst  of  the  apartments.  This  estufa  differed  from  others 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 


185 


which  are  found  elsewhere,  in  that  the  central  chamber  was 
surrounded  by  a  series  of  chambers  built  in  the  form  of  a  circle, 
thus  indicating  that  the  estufa  in  this  region  was  used  as  a  place 
of  permanent  abode.  This  confirms  what  we  have  said  about 
the  use  of  the  towers  which  are  so  numerous  in  the  valley  of  the 
San  Juan,  but  are  peculiar  to  the  region.*  He  says  : 

A  group  differing  from  the  preceding,  is  situated  on  a  low  bench 
within  a  mile  of  the  main  McElmo,  and  near  a  dry  wash  that  enters  that 
stream  from  the  south.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  compact  village  or  com 
munity  dwelling,  consisting  of  two  circular  buildings  and  a  great  num 
ber  of  rectangular  apartments.  The  circular  structures,  or  towers,  have 
been  built  in  the  usual  manner,  of  roughlv-hewn  stone,  and  rank  among 
the  very  best  specimens  of  this  ancient  architecture.  The  great  tower  is 
especially  noticeable,  on  account  of  the  occurrence  of  a  third  wall,  as 
seen  in  the  drawing  and  in  the  plan  at  a.  In  dimensions  it  is  almost  iden- 


FIG.  8.  BATTLE  ROCK  NEAR  THE  McELMO 

tical  with  the  great  tower  of  the  Rio  Mancos.  The  walls  are  traceable 
nearly  all  the  way  round,  and  the  space  between  the  two  outer  ones, 
which  is  about  five  feet  in  width,  contains  fourteen  apartments,  or  cells. 
The  walls  about  one  of  these  cells  is  still  standing  to  the  height  of  twelve 
feet,  but  the  interior  cannot  be  examined  on  account  of  the  rubbish,  which 
fills  it  to  the  top.  No  openings  are  noticeable  in  the  circular  walls,  but 
doorways  seem  to  have  been  made  to  communicate  between  the  apart 
ments  ;  one  is  preserved  at  d.  . 

The  inner  wall  has  not  been  as  high  or  strong  as  the  others,  and  has 
served  simply  to  enclose  the  estufa.  This  tower  stands  back  about  one 
hundred  feet  from  the  edge  of  the  mesa  and  near  the  border  of  the  vil 
lage.  The  smaller  tower,  b,  stands  forward  on  a  point  overlooking  the  shal 
low  gulch,  it  is  fifteen  feet  in  diameter;  the  walls  are  three  and  a  half  feet 
thick  and  five  feet  high  on  the  outside.  Beneath  this  ruin,  in  a  little  side 
gulch,  are  the  remains  of  a  wall  twelve  feet  high  and  twenty  inches  thick. 
The  remainder  of  the  village  is  in  such  a  state  of  decay  as  to  be  hardly 

*  Situated  on  the  San  Juan  River,  about  35  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  La  Plata  and 
10  miles  above  the  Mancos.  Here  the  vertical  bluff-face  is  from  ^5  to  45  feet  in  height. 

See  Hayden's  Survey  for  1876,  p.  398.     See  Chapter  on  High  Houses. 


186  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

traceable  among-  the  artemisia  and  rubbish.  The  apartments  number 
nearly  a  hundred,  and  seem,  generally,  to  have  been  rectangular.  They 
are  not,  however,  of  uniform  size,  and  certainiy  not  arranged  in  regular 
order.  .  .  .  The  site  of  this  village  can  hardly  have  been  chosen  on  ac 
count  of  its  defensive  advantages,  nor  on  account  of  the  fertility  of  the 
surrounding  country.  The  neighboring  plains  and  mesas  are  as  naked 
and  barren  as  possible.  The  nearest  water  is  a  mile  away,  and  during  the 
drier  part  of  the  season  the  nearest  running  water  is  in  the  Rio  Dolores, 
nearly  fifteen  miles  away.  To  suppose  an  agricultural  people  existing 
in  such  a  locality,  with  the  present  climate,  is  manifestly  absurd.  Yet, 
every  isolated  rock  and  bit  of  mesa,  within  a  circle  of  miles,  is  strewn  with 
remnants  of  human  dwellings. 

Another  very  important  group  of  ruins  is  located  in  the  depres 
sion  between  the  Mesa  Verde  and  the  Late  Mountains,  and  near 
the  divide  between  the  McElmo  and  Lower  Mancos  drainage. 
It  was  christened  Aztec  Springs.  See  plate.  Mr.  Holmes  says  of  it: 


FIC.9.     RUINS  ON  THE  McELMO 

The  site  of  the  spring  I  found,  but  without  the  least  appearance  of  water. 
The  depression  formerly  occupied  by  it  is  near  the  centre  of  a  large  mass 
of  ruins,  similar  to  the  group  last  described,  but  having  a  rectangular,  in 
stead  of  a  circular,  building,  as  the  chief  and  central  structure.  This  I 
have  called  the  upper  house  in  the  plate,  and  a, large  walled  enclosure,  a 
little  lower  on  the  slope,  I  have,  for  the  sake  of  distinction,  called  the  lower 
house.  These  ruins  form  the  most  imposing  pile  of  masonry  yet  found  in 
Colorado.  The  whole  group  covers  an  area  of  about  480,000  square  feet, 
and  has  an  average  depth  of  from  three  to  four  feet.  This  would  give  in 
the  vicinity  of  1.500,000  solid  feet  of  stone  .work.  The  stone  used  is  chiefly 
of  the  fossiliferous  limestone  that  outcrops  along  the  base  of  the  Mesa 
Verde,  a  mile  or  more  away,  and  its  transportation  to  this  place  has  doubt 
less  been  a  great  work  for  a  people  so  totally  without  facilities. 

The  upper  house  is  rectangular,  measures  80x100  feet,  and  is  built  with 
the  cardinal  points  to  within  five  degrees.  The  pile  is  from  12  to  15  feet  in 
height,  and  its  massiveness  suggests  an  original  height  at  least  twice  as 

great Two  well  defined  circular  enclosures,  or  estufas  are 

situated  in  the  midst  of  the  southern  wing  of  the  ruin.  The  upper  one,  a, 
is  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  spring  from  the  great  house,  is  6p  feet  in  di 
ameter,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  low  stone  wall.  West  of  the  house  is  a 
small  open  court,  which  seems  to  have  had  a  gateway  opening  out  to  the 
west  through  the  surrounding  walls.  The  lower  house  is  200  feet  in  length 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  187 

by  1 80  in  width,  and  its  walls  vary  15 'degrees  from  the  cardinal  points. 
The  northern  wall,  a,  is  double,  and  contains  a  row  of  eight  apartments, 
about  seven  feet  in  width  by  twenty-four  in  length.  The  walls  of  the  other 
sides  are  low,  and  seem  to  have  served  simply  to  enclose  the  great  court, 
near  the  centre  of  which  is  a  large  walled  depression  (estufa  B}* 

Mr.  E.  A.  Barber  has  described  the  ruins  at  Aztec  Springs  and 
as  well  as  the  "Black  Tower."  See  fig.  2,  Chap.  VI,  p.  84.  He  says: 
"  The  Black  Tower  is  a  short  distance  below  the  ruins.  A  very 
ancient  path,  almost  obliterated,  leads  up  to  the  ruin.  The  situ 
ation  was  an  admirable  one  for  over-looking  the  gulch.  Many 
miles  above  and  below  from  this  point,  signals  could  be  tele 
graphed  to  distant  stations  in  times  of  danger,  while  the  mini 
ature  castle  itself  was  so  sheltered  by  surrounding  trees  as  to  es 
cape  the  notice  of  careless  observers." 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  ruins  just  described,  and  near  the  Utah 
border,  is  a  peculiarly  interesting  cluster  of  fortifications.  A 
mass  of  dark-red  sandstone,  a  hundred  feet  in  height,  stands  in 
the  midst  of  an  open  plain,  on  the  top  of  which  the  remnants  of 
several  walls  are  still  visible. 

The  most  perfectly  preserved  portion  of  the  group  is  a  rec 
tangular  apartment  built  half-way  up  on  the  northern  face  of  the 
boulder,  which  has  been  named  Battle  Rock  because  of  the  le 
gend  of  a  great  battle  having  been  fought  there.  See  fig.  9. 

In  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Battle  Rock  may  be  seen 
a  series  of  diminutive  cave  dwellers  or  stone  houses.  Little 
hollows,  scarcely  exceeding  six  feet  in  diameter,  were  walled  up 
at  the  mouth  and  occupied  as  dormitories,  or  more  probably  as 
magazines  or  caches  in  which  provisions  were  stored.  Scores 
of  these  are  found  through  all  the  adjacent  canons,  in  many  in 
stances  situated  hundreds  of  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  streams 
and  originally  approached  by  niched  steps  cut  in  the  perpendic 
ular  cliffs,  but  which  have  been  so  worn  away  by  time  that  they 
no  longer  present  footholds  for  the  adventurous  climber.  If  we 
advance  in  a  westerly  direction,  some  fifteen  miles  to  the  dry 
valley  of  the  Hovenweep,  deserted  canon,  we  discover  another 
large  ruined  structure  built  on  a  mesa  which  rises  to  the  height 
of  50  feet  in  the  center  of  the  valley.  On  this  the  walls  of  a 
fortress  or  community  dwelling  are  seen,  extending  to  a  distance 
of  275  feet.  At  some  points  they  still  remain  standing,  12  feet 
in  height.  Many  of  the  corners  of  the  rooms  were  neatly  and 
accurately  curved. 

In  the  plaster,  the  impressions  of  finger  tips,  knuckles  and 
nails  are  quite  distinct  and  in  some  instances  the  delicate  lines 
of  the  epidermis  were  distinctly  visible. 


*  Dr.  J.  S.  Newberry  visited  this  region  in  1876,  and  discovered  a  series  of  ancient  ruins. 
He  says  of  it  :  "  Like  most  of  the  ruined  pueblos  of  New  Mexico,  it  consisted  of  a  series  of 
small  rooms  clustered  together  like  cells  in  a  beehive.  Near  the  principal  edifice  are  mounds 
of  stone,  representing  subordinate  buildings.  Among  these  are  numerous  large  depressions, 
marking  the  place  of  cisterns,  or  fsfufau." 


188 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE 


Mr.  Barber  has  also  spoken  of  the  ruins  of  Montezuma  Canon, 
which  consist  of  stone  walls,  of  graves,  and  of  long,  narrow 
buildings,  all  of  them  situated  upon  low  mesas,  giving  signs  of 
great  antiquity.  (See  figs.  10  and  11.)  The  walls  are  made  of 
long,  narrow  stones,  standing  like  posts  in  a  fence,  the  spaces 
between  filled  after  the  usual  style  of  masonry.  The  graves 
were  arranged  in  rows  and  rectangles  and  occasionally  in  circles. 


FIG.   10.     ANCIENT  WALL  NEAR  MONTEZUMA  CANON 

We  may  say  of  all  of  these  ruins,  those  on  the  La  Plata, 
McElmo,  and  Montezuma  Canon,  that  they  exhibit  three  periods 
of  occupation:  the  first  of  which  was  marked  by  peacful  agri 
cultural  settlements;  the  second  by  the  large  community-house 
which  was  built  in  terraces  and  very  compact  for  the  sake  of 
••defense;  the  third  by  cliff-fortresses  and  high  houses,  the  in- 


FIG.   11.     ANCIENT  GRAVES  ON  THE  MONTEZUMA  CANON 


vasion  of  hostile  tribes  having  driven  the  people  farther  and 
farther  away  from  the  valleys  to  the  Mesas,  free  from  assault; 
the  second  showing  a  necessity  for  defense,  which  was  met  by 
building  the  villages  in  one  compact  or  great  house;  the  last 
was  fraught  with  so  much  danger  that  the  people  were  obliged 
to  build  their  houses  high  up  in  the  cliffs. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  189 

This  brings  us  to  consider  the  relative  age  of  the  pueblos  and 
the  cliff-dwellings.  * 

It  was  formerly  the  opinion  that  the  Cliff-dwellers  were  among 
the  most  ancient  people  in  America,  that  their  history  extended 
back  an  indefinite  period  into  the  past,  and  that  their  departure 
and  final  destiny  are  enveloped  in  mystery,  which  it  is  useless  to 
penetrate.  This  opinion  has  been  greatly  modified  by  recent 
exploration,  and  the  evidence  now  is,  that  so  far  from  being  the 
earliest  people  they  belong  to  the  last  of  three  periods  of  occu 
pation,  the  earliest  cf  which  was  marked  by  "  straggling  villages  " 
and  pueblos,  which  are  now  in  ruins,  the  most  of  them  being 
situated  in  the  valleys  near  the  water  courses  and  irrigating 
canals,  and  attended  with  ancient  picture  writings  or  petroglyphs; 
the  second  by  the  pueblos,  which  are  built  upon  the  mesas, 
the  third  by  the  cliff-dwellings.  All  of  these  show  that  the 
people  dwelt  here  and  continued  in  a  peaceful  and  an  agricul 
tural  condition  for  many  years,  and  perhaps  centuries,  but  after 
ward  suffered  from  the  attacks  of  wild  tribes,  who  invaded 
their  possessions,  kept  them  constantly  disturbed,  and  drove 
them  first  to  the  mesas  and  afterwards  to  the  cliffs,  as  the  only 
places  where  they  could  be  secure.  The  date  of  this  invasion  is 
unknown,  but  the  general  opinion  is  that  it  was  many  years 
before  the  first  visit  of  the  Spaniards,  though  many  changes 
took  place  in  the  population  after  that  event.  Possibly  some  of 
the  cliff-dwellings  have  been  occupied  during  the  historic  period,, 
but  if  so,  it  was  by  the  tribes  which  had  long  continued  to  besiege 
the  people  in  their  homes,  and  in  the  meantime  borrowed  many 
of  their  arts  and  perhaps  their  symbols. 

Among  these  tribes  may  be  mentioned  the  Utes.the  Apaches,, 
and  the  Navajoes,  for  the  latter  people  still  occupy  the  region, 
and  occasionally  use  the  ruined  pueblos  as  corals  for  their  sheep 
and  temporary  homes  for  their  families. 

It  is  indeed  difficult  to  draw  the  distinction  between  the  earlier 
and  the  later  people,  for  the  pueblos  and  the  cliff- dwellings  are 
built  in  the  same  general  style,  and  contain  similar  relics  and 
specimens  of  art,  and  are  attended  with  similar  pictographs  and 
symbols,  yet  the  conviction  grows  stronger  as  we  examine  these 
tokens  in  detail,  that  the  Cliff-dwellers  were  later  than  the  Pueb 
los,  though  the  time  when  they  abandoned  their  homes  in  the 
cliffs  and  surrendered  their  territory  to  the  wild  tribes  who  now 
occupy  it,  is  unknown. 

It  is  interesting  to  go  over  the  region  and  study  the  struct 
ures,  and  especially  the  pictographs,  and  read  in  them  the  early 
history  of  the  people  and  ritark  the  changes  that  came  upon 
them. 

We  may  say  here,  that  the  pictographs  are  the  most  interest 
ing  tokens.  These  have  been  noticed  by  all  the  explorers  who 
have  visited  the  cliff  dwellings,  beginning  with  Lieuts.  Simpson 


190  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

and  Ives,  who  described  those  which  are  near  the  pueblos  of  the 
Zunis  and  including  Messrs.  Holmes  and  Jackson,  who  de 
scribed  those  found  near  the  cliff-dwellings  of  the  San  Juan,  and 
those  who  have  lately  studied  the  pictographs  in  the  shelter  caves, 
all  of  whom  hold  that  the  cliff-dwellers  had  a  way  of  recording 
events  which  was  understood  by  them,  but  to  us  is  obscure. 

Some  of  these  pictographs  have  modern  figures  mingled  with 
the  ancient,  viz.,  men  with  guns,  and  horses  with  saddles  upon 
them;  evidently  placed  there  by  Indians  after  the  advent  of 
the  white  man.  The  majority  of  them,  however,  have  fig 
ures  and  symbols,  which  belonged  to  pre-historic  times,  as 
a  strong  resemblance  can  be  traced  between  them  and  others 
which  may  be  found  upon  the  rocks  near  the  ruins  on  the  Gila 
river, and  the  ancient  pueblos  on  the  Zuni  and  elsewhere.  Among 
these  pictographs  are  some  which  are  very  ancient.  To  illustrate, 
one  described  by  W.  H.  Holmes  represents  a  long  line  of  ani 
mals,  some  of  which  were  domestic  dogs,  llamas  and  turkeys, 
the  line  forming  a  procession,  as  if  in  the  act  of  migrating, 
though  possibly  they  may  be  driven  by  men  into  the  corals.  In 
this  pictograph  is  a  figure  resembling  a  reindeer  and  a  sledge, 
conveying  the  idea  that  the  person  who  made  it  was  familiar 
with  scenes  common  among  the  Esquimaux.  Similar  picto 
graphs,  representing  llamas,  are  described  by  Dr.  Washington 
Matthews1  as  found  upon  rocks  in  the  Puerco  valley. 

These  pict'ographs  represent  hunters  or  herdsmen  in  the  act 
of  casting  lassos  [See  plate,  Fig.  19],  also  holding  in  their  hand  a 
peculiar  four-branched  instrument.  One  rock  inscription  shows  a 
number  of  these  animals  with  a  hunter,  who  bears  a  bow  in  one 
hand  and  a  line  in  the  other.  Another  represents  a  company  of 
dancers,  as  in  front  of  the  hunter.  Still  another  depicts  a  Sola 
thrower  in  connection  with  a  flock  of  turkeys.  Knotted  cords 
have  been  found  in  sacrificial  caves. which  resemble  quippus  or 
the  knotted  cords  oi  the  Peruvians. 

There  were  also  unearthed  terra  cotta  images  of  llamas  in  the 
ruins  of  some  of  the  ultra  mural  houses  near  Los  Muertos,  on 
the  Rio  Gila. 

The  pictographs  in  the  shelter  caves  and  near  the  cliff-dwell 
ings  depict  certain  wild  animals,  such  as  Rocky  Mountain  goats, 
elks,  wild  turkeys,  snakes,  centipedes,  but  none  of  them  repre 
sent  the  llama  or  the  bola  throwers.  These  convey  the  impres 
sion  that  a  great  length  of  time  had  passed  between  the  first  set 
tlement  of  this  region,  and  the  time  when  the  people  were  driven 
to  the  cliffs  for  safety. 

(1)  Dr.  Matthews  says  an  intimate  relationship  exists  between  the  builders  of  the  ancient 
Salado  temples  and  the  ancient  pueblos  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  a  relationship  also 
less  intimate  between  them  and  the  ancient  house  building  tribes  of  Old  Mexico.  There 
are  facts  which  point  to  a  close  connection  between  this  people  and  the  ancient  Peru 
vians.  It  has  been  surmised  that  such  animals  continued  to  be  domesticated  by  the  seden 
tary  Indians  down  to  historic  days,  but  Mr.  Bandelier  says,  if  there  has  ever  been  a 
llama  Guanaco  or  Vicuna  known  to  the  southwestern  Indians  it  became  extinct  long 
previous  to  the  sixteenth  century." 


ry 

Fto;  n.-Kock  inscription  tlionght  to  repr.-seot  vlcuua-hke  animals  and  man  throwing  bolat 


Fio.  19._Rock  inicriptfon  of  supposed  bola-thrower,  dancing  men,  and  other  object*. 


a 


FlO.  20.-Kock  Inscription  of  Ticuta-like  animalB  and  hunter. 


PICTOGRAPHS  IN  ARIZONA. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  191 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  no  image  or  pictograph  of  the  buffalo 
has  been  found  in  the  pueblo  territory,  though  that  animal  was 
very  common  in  the  Mississippi  Galley. 

Still,  the  procession  of  animals,  guarded  by  dogs  and  men, 
would  indicate  that  the  custom  of  driving  animals  into  corals  or 
through  game  drives,  was  as  common  among  hunters  here  as 
farther  east,  where  buffalos  and  larger  animals  were  hunted. 

The  pictographs  near  the  ancient  pueblos  show  that  they  were 
occupied  by  people  sedentary  in  their  habits,  who  had  domestic 
animals,  and  used  their  wool  as  well  as  cotton  for  their  fabrics, 
and  depended  upon  agriculture  and  irrigation  for  subsistence; 
but  the  pictographs  of  the  Cliff-dwellers,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  indicate  that  their  life  had  become  wild,  and  that  they 
had  resorted  to  hunting  as  the  means  of  subsistence,  the  con 
trast  between  the  earlier  and  later  periods  being  brought  out  by 
all  these  circumstances. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  same  problems  brought  up  by  the  pic 
tographs,  which  we  have  found  so  formidable  among  the  Mound- 
builders,  for  the  appearance  of  extinct  animals,  such  as  the 
llamas  and  the  elephants,  suggest  great  antiquity  and  a  diversity 
of  origin  to  the  people,  as  the  llamas  are  animals  that  belong  to 
the  Southern  continent,  and  not  to  the  Northern. 

Another  proof  of  the  great  difference  in  time,  between  the 
first  erection  of  the  pueblos  and  the  resort  to  the  cliff-dwellings, 
is  presented  by  the  condition  of  the  structures  themselves. 

We  have  shown  that  the  pueblos  in  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan 
were  nearly  all  in  a  state  of  ruin.  The  cliff-dwellings  on  the 
other  hand  are  generally  well  preserved.  This  has  been  explained 
by  the  fact  that  buildings  in  the  "open"  will  go  to  ruin  much  faster 
than  those  sheltered  by  the  "rocks,"  but  this  will  not  account  for 
the  great  difference  between  them. 

The  cliff  dwellings  are  built  on  the  same  general  plan  as  the 
pueblos.  They  have  courts  and  streets,  store  houses  and  store 
rooms,  estufas,  terraced  houses,  balconies,  look-outs  and  towers 
exactly  as  the  pueblos  have,  and  are  generally  near  the  streams 
and  springs  of  water,  but  the  walls  are  for  the  most  part  in  per 
fect  condition,  and  the  relics  and  remains  are  well  preserved. 
Their  walls  all  stand,  the  floors  and  roofs  remain,  the  windows 
and  doors  retain  their  original  shape.  The  towers  are  as  sym 
metrical  and  complete  as  when  first  built,  and  the  estufas,  though 
their  walls  are  thrown  down,  often  retain  ornaments  and  shapes 
which  they  had  when  they  were  occupied.  The  impression 
formed  by  most  of  the  visitors  to  the  cliff-dwellings  is  that  they 
were  comparatively  modern,  for  some  of  them  look  as  if  they 
had  been  just  left,  and  one  is  led  to  expect  that  some  lingering 
survivor  of  the  denizens  of  the  cliffs  will  arise  to  confront  him 
and  arrest  his  steps.  The  explorer  among  the  ruins  of  the  pueb 
los  on  the  other  hand  is  always  impressed  with  the  sense  of 


192  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

their  great  age,  and  he  begins  to  speculate  as  to  how  many  cen 
turies  have  passed  since  they  stood  in  their  stately  magnificence, 
as  ornaments  in  the  landscape,  and  were  filled  with  a  teeming 
multitude  of  agriculturists,  who  drew  the  water  for  irrigating  the 
soil  from  streams  near  by.  It  is  the  testimony  of  most  explorers 
that  the  pueblos  of  the  ancient  or  early  period,  were  superior  to 
those  erected  in  later  times  in  their  general  style  and  finish,  num 
ber  and  conveniences  of  their  apartments,  and  in  their  surround 
ings,  indicated  that  the  people  who  occupied  them  were  then  in  a 
higher  state  of  advancement  than  their  successors,  either  in  this 
region  or  in  any  of  the  pueblo  territory. 

Still,  after  examining  the  ornaments,  relics  and  pictographs  one 
is  convinced  that  the  people  who  beat  a  retreat  to  the  cliffs  were 
the  same  as  those  who  built  the  pueblos,  for  they  show  the  same 
taste  and  skill,  the  same  stage  of  advancement  and  the  same 
religious  sentiment,  and  the  same  desire  to  perpetuate  the  rec 
ords  by  signs  and  symbols.  The  only  difference  is  that  the  cliff- 
dwellings  were  erected  by  a  people  who  had  been  driven  from 
their  permanent  and  peaceable  homes,  and  compelled  to  build 
their  houses  in  the  deep  recesses  of  the  rocks,  and  make  their 
villages,  fortresses,  the  chief  protection  consisting  in  the  fact  that 
they  were  inaccessible.  This  would  show  that  the  pueblos, 
which  we  have  seen,  were  so  numerous  in  the  valley  of  the  San 
Juan  and  its  tributaries,  some  of  them  situated  on  the  mesas  and 
others  in  the  valleys,  were  the  more  ancient.  Those  of  the 
Tusayans  and  Zuni  were  the  more  modern,  but  the  cliff  dwell 
ings  were  built  at  an  intermediate  date. 

The  conclusion  we  reach,  after  comparing  the  several  classes 
of  ruins,  is  that  the  agricultural  settlements  which  formerly 
filled  the  valleys,  and  which  teemed  with  a  peaceable  and  prosper 
ous  people,  had  been  broken  up  by  invading  savages,  but  the 
people  fled  to  the  cliffs,  and  built  their  towns  in  these  rocky  fast 
nesses,  where  they  followed  a  precarious  livelihood,  as  their 
homes  were  always  subject  to  alarms. 

Many  specimens  of  pueblos  of  the  earlier  period  have  been 
found  on  the  San  Juan.  We  add  a  few  cuts,  which  perhaps  repre 
sent  the  structures  of  the  same  period,  as  they  are  small  pueblos 
built  upon  the  mesas,  descriptions  of  which  have  been  given  by 
W.  H.  Holmes.  One  of  these  was  in  the  Montezuma  Canon. 
The  ruin  occupies  one  of  the  small,  isolated  mesas,  and  was 
composed  of  a  wall  made  up  of  long  blocks,  which  were  placed 
upright,  similar  to  those  already  described,  but  the  spaces 
between  the  uprights  were  filled  with  smaller  rocks.  The  second 
ruin  was  upon  the  Rio  San  Juan.  "  It  was  a  small  pueblo  situated 
upon  a  bench  about  fifty  feet  above  the  river.  In  the  center  of  the 
building  was  a  court  seventy  five  feet  wide,  averaging  forty  feet  in 
depth.  Back  of  the  court  was  a  series  of  seven  apartments, 
arranged  in  a  semicircle,  and  outside  of  these  other  larger  rooms. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 


193 


Extreme  massiveness  is  indicated  throughout  the  whole  struc 
ture.     It  was  also  of  great  age." 

In  contrast  with  these  is  the  two-story  cliff  house,  which  has 
been  described  as  situated  on  Butlers  Wash.  It  shows  the 
change  from  the  communistic  house  back  to  the  "straggling  vil- 


RUINS  IN  MONTEZUMA 

CANON,  UTAH. 
Upon  an.  iiolp.'ed  mesa  60  x!30  feet 
in  clUr. -iete;  and  40  feet  in  height. 


lage,"  as  the  houses  were  all  separate,  though  the  same  elements 
of  the  village  were  retained.  This  house  was  furnished  with  a 
balcony  and  modern  looking  doors.  Its  roof  was  supported  by 
timbers  which  stretched  from  the  outer  wall  to  the  rocks  in  the 


V,    RUINS  UPON  THE 
RIO  SAN  JUAN 


uff  50  ft.  in  height 
ntaning  a  row  oi 
small  buildings 


rear.     There  are  many  such  houses  in  this  region.     They  indi 
cate  that  the  clan  life  had  already  been  broken  up. 

It  is  probable  that  at  one  time  a  dense  population  occupied  the 
valleys  of  all  the  larger  streams,  such  as  the  San  Juan,  including 
its  branches,  the  Animas,  La  Plata,  Chaco,  the  McElmo  and 


194 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


Hovenweep,  and  the  Rio  Grande  and  its  branches,  the  Gila  and 
its  branches,  including  the  Verde,  the  Salt  River,  Colorado 
River,  including  the  Little  Colorado  and  the  Chiquito,  for  there 
are  ruined  pueblos  scattered  over  this  region,  some  of  them 
"Great  House  Pueblos,"  others  " Boulder  Sites,"  and  still  others 
"Castles"  (casas),  "Cavate  Houses"  and  "  Cliff  Towns." 

The  most  interesting  pueblo  of  the  ancient  or  early  period  is 
the  one  situated  on  the  Animas  River,  near  the  little  village  of 
Aztec,  New  Mexico.  This  was  visited  by  Lieut.  Rogers  Birnie 
in  1875,  by  Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan  in  1877,  Mr.  L.  W.  Gunckel  in 


Fig.  12.     TWO-STORY  CLIFF  HOUSE. 

1892,  and  descriptions  given  by  each.1  The  following  is  Mr.  Mor 
gan's  description : 

This  pueblo  is  one  of  four  situated  within  the  extent  of  one  mile, 
though  there  are  four  or  five  smaller,  inferior  ruins  within  the  same  area. 
It  was  five  or  perhaps  six  stories  high  [See  Fig.  13]  and  consisted  of  a  main 
building  368  feet  long,  two  wings  270  feet  long,  with  a  fourth  structure 
made  with  two  walls,  which  crossed  from  the  end  of  one  wing  to  the  end  of 
the  other,  and  enclosed  an  open  court  in  which  was  a  large  estufa.  It  was 
built  in  a  terraced  form  and  had  its  rooms  arranged  after  the  "honey 
comb"  pattern,  but  differed  from  others  in  that  the  partition  walls  stand 
out  three  or  four  feet  like  buttresses,  and  show  that  the  masonry  was 
articulated,  and  that  the  partition  walls  were  continuous  from  front  to 
rear,  and  the  walls  of  the  several  stories  rested  upon  each  other.  Every 
room  in  the  main  building  was  faced  with  stone,  on  the  four  sides,  and  had 
an  adobe  floor  and  wooden  ceiling.  Each  room  had  two  doorways  and  four 
openings  about  twelve  inches  square,  two  on  each  side  of  the  doorway  near 
the  ceiling.  The  openings  were  for  light  and  ventilation.  The  neatness 
and  the  general  correctness  of  the  masonry  is  best  seen  in  the  doorways, 
some  of  which  measure  three  feet,  four  inches,  by  two  feet,  seven  inches. 
The  rooms  in  all  cases  ran  across  the  building,  from  the  external  court  to 
the  exterior  wall,  and  were  connected  with  those  below  by  means  of  trap- 


(1)  For  Lieut.  Birnie's  description  see  Wheeler's  Survey  of  1875,  page  178;  Morgan's 
Houses  and  House  Life,  p.  173,  Fig.  40;  Illustrated  American.  May  28, 1892,  article  In 
Search  of  a  Lost  Race,  p,  86. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE. 


195 


doors  and  ladders,  with  those  in  front  and  back  and  at  the  side  by  door 
ways,  after  the  pattern  in  the  present  occupied  pueblo  of  Taos. 

The  families  lived  in  the  second  and  upper  stories,  and  used  the  rooms 
below  for  storage  and  for  granaries.  Each  family  had  two  or  four  or  six 
rooms,  and  those  who  held  the  upper  rooms  held  those  below.  The  number 
of  apartments  would  make  an  aggregate  of  four  hundred  rooms.  The  house 
was  a  fortress,  and  also  a  joint  tenement  house  of  the  Aboriginal  American 
model,  and  indicated  an  ancient  communism  in  living,  practiced  by  large 
households  (or  clans)  formed  on  the  principle  of  kin.  It  presented  a  great 
resemblance,  in  its  general  plan  and  the  arrangement  of  the  rooms  and 
courts,  and  especially  in  the  style  of  building  the  walls,  with  alternate 
courses  of  thin  stone,  to  the  ruined  pueblos  on  Rio  Chaco,  about  sixty  miles 
distant,  described  by  Gen.  J.  H.  Simpson. 

Near  this   pueblo   is   another,   built   in    two  sections,  with  a 
space  about  fifteen  feet  wide  between  them,  though  they  were 


Fie.  13.    PUEBLO  ON  THE  AXIMAS. 


probably  connected  in  the  upper  stories  and  inhabited  as  one 
structure,  the  openings  between  them  forming  a  passage  .way 
resembling  that  still  existing  at  Walpi  and  other  Tusayan  vil 
lages. 

The  largest  of  these  buildings  seemed  to  have  an  open  court 
in  the  center  in  the  form  of  a  parallelogram.  The  most  remark- 
able'feature  was  the  following:  "Midway  between  this  pueblo 
and  the  larger  one  just  described,  is  a  circular  ruin  330  feet  in 
circuit,  which  seems  to  have  consisted  or  two  concentric  rows  of 
apartments,  around  an  enclosed  estufa,  built  of  cobble  stone  and 
adobe  mortar,  which  was  probably  used  as  a  council  house  or 
assembly  place  for  the  entire  Phratry." 

"  From  the  number  and  size  of  the  houses  there  was  probably 
a  population  of  at  least  5,000  persons  at  this  settlement,  who 


196  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

lived  by  horticulture.  The  supply  of  water  for  irrigation1  at  the 
pueblo  was  abundant,  as  the  valley  of  the  Animas  River  is  here 
broad  and  beautiful  and  about  three  miles  wide,  the  river  passing- 
through  the  center  of  the  valley.  The  cliff  on  each  side  of  the 
plain  is  bold  and  mountainous,  rising  from  1,500  to  2,000  feet 
high. 

These  pueblos,  newly  constructed  and  in  their  best  condition 
must  have  presented  a  commanding  appearance.  From  the 
material  used  in  their  construction,  from  their  palatial  size  and 
unique  design,  and  from  the  cultivated  gardens  with  which  they 
were  undoubtedly  surrounded,  they  were  calculated  to  impress 
the  beholder  very  favorably  with  the  degree  of  culture  to  which 
the  people  had  attained." 

This  description  by  L,  H.  Morgan  is  worthy  of  attention  from 
the  fact  that  he  recognized  the  buildings  as  the  abode  of  a  phra- 
try2  and  suggests  that  here  was  a  large  agricultural  settlement. 

It  would  seem  from  all  the  accounts  that  have  been  written 
that  there  was  here  a  group  of  pueblos  which  resembled  those  on 
the  Chaco  river  to  the  south,  all  of  which  are  now  in  ruins  and 
evidently  very  ancient. 

It  is  not  known  whether  there  was  any  confederacy,3  but  it 
seems  probable  that  the  clans  or  tribes  who  dwelt  in  the  pueblos 
of  the  San  Juan  valley  were  allied,  and  the  wonder  is  that  they 
could  have  been  driven  off  by  the  wild  tribes.  This  was  owing 
to  the  fact  that  each  Pueblo  was  independent  or  under  the  direc 
tion  of  a  chief,  but  there  was  no  organization  which  extended 
to  the  other  Pueblos,  or  brought  them  under  one  head.  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  case  even  with  the  Iroquois  or  six  tribes 
until  the  time  that  Hiawatha  organized  them  into  a  confederacy. 

It  would  seem  that  the  Pueblos  were  long  beset  by  the  wild 
tribes,  for  their  style  of  erecting  buildings  in  terraces  surround 
ing  a  court,  with  a  wall  in  front  of  the  court,  was  well  adapted 
for  protection  against  a  lurking  foe.  There  were  also  provisions 
made  for  defense  against  a  sudden  attack,  as  there  were  lookouts 
and  towers  on  every  high  point,  and  some  of  the  pueblos  them- 

(1)  That  there  were  irrigating  canals,  which  could  escape  observation,  is  evident  from 
a  discovery  which  was  made  in  1896  by  Capt.  D.  D.  Gaillard,  U   S.  A.     It  appears  that  a 
dam,  five  and  one-half  miles  in  length,  in  Grant  County,  New  Mexico,  composed  of  sedi 
mentary  material,  but  having  the  appearance  of  great  age.  was  found.     The  materials  of 
the  dam.  the  direction  of  its  axis,  the  regularity  of  its  slopes,  the  uniformity  in  eleva 
tion  of  its  crest,  the  fact  that  it  joins  high  ground  at  both  ends,  and  its  location,  would 
indicate  that  this  remarkable  earth  work  was  of  artificial  construction  ;  but  so  gigantic 
is  the  work  that  it  was  taken  for  a  natural  ridge. 

(2)  According  to  Mr.  L.H.Morgan,  a  phratry  was  a  brotherhood  composed  of  related 
clans,  and  was  caused  by  a  separation  of  a  tribe  into  two  divisions  for  social  and  relig 
ious  purposes,  but  implies  nothing  concerning  the  existence  of  a  confederacy.    The 
phratry  was  without  governmental  functions,  for  these  belong  to  the  tribe,  but  it  had 
much  to  do  with  social  affairs. 

(3)  Where  several  pueblos  were  situated  near  each  other  on  the  same  stream,  the  people 
were  of  common  descent,  but  they  were  not  necessarily  under  a  tribal  or  a  confederate- 
government.     The  tribes  held  religious  festivals  at  particular  seasons  of  the  year,  which 
were  observed  with  forms  of  worship,  dances  and  games.    The  medicine  lodge,  with  the- 
wild  tribes,  was  the  center  of  these  observances  ;  but  among  the  Pueblos  it  was  the  kiva. 
Military  operations  were  usually  left  to  the  action  of  the  voluntary  principle. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  197 

selves  were  situated  on  the  mesas,  where  they  could  command 
extensive  views  of  the  valleys. 

"  There  were  many  signs  of  a  prehistoric  race  which  once  lived 
and  prospered  in  this  region.  On  almost  every  prominent  point 
are  mounds  of  debris  and  rudely  squared  stones,  which  mark  the 
houses  of  the  people,  all  in  a  state  of  a  far  advanced  ruin,  with 
but  few  walls  remaining  intact,  projecting  above  the  mounds. 
The  valley,  if  properly  irrigated,  is  excellent  land  for  farming 
and  orchards,  though  there  are,  at  present,  few  signs  of  irrigating 
canals. 

The  forests  are  few  and  found  only  at  great  altitudes,  but  in 
the  ledges  and  cliffs,  which  line  and  enclose  the  water  courses, 
there  were,  everywhere,  loose  stone,  lying  in  blocks,  ready  tor 
the  builders'  hand  It  was  probably  here  that  the  early  inhab 
itants  learned  to  build  their  dwellings  of  stone  and  that  the  com 
munal  houses  or  pueblos  of  stone  first  reached  their  pretentious 
dimensions.  Among  the  most  interesting  of  the  relics  which 
were  lefc  by  the  prehistoric  people  were  the  delicately  formed 
arrow-points  made  from  obsidian,  jasper,  moss-agate  and  flint  of 
many  and  variegated  tints  and  colors.  Several  pottery  bowls, 
with  red  decorations,  containing  flint  knives  ;  one  cup  shaped 
bowl  with  a  long  handle,  and  one  or  two  mugs  with  a  bent  han 
dle;  vases  with  handles  on  either  side,  bottles,  jars  and  mortars 
were  found,  all  of  which  showed  that  the  domestic  pottery  was 
generally  decorated  There  are  many  other  pueblos  in  this 
vicinity  which  illustrate  the  contrast  between  ancient  and  modern 
structures.  One  of  these  has  been  described  by  Mr.  Gunckel. 
It  is  situated  upon  the  La  Plata,  about  three  fourths  of  a  mile 
south  of  the  Colorado  State  line,  near  the  Reservation  of  the  Utes. 
He  says: 

'•  It  forms  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  imposing  points,  from  which 
the  view  up  and  down  the  river  is  magnificent.  Prom  any  point  in  the  ruins 
one  can  see  fifty  miles  or  more  through  the  fertile  valley,  which  extends 
along  the  La  Plata,  bounded  on  each  side  by  mesas.  The  altitude  of  the 
ruins  is  6,100  feet  above  the  sea  level,  and  125  feet  above  the  La  Plata. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  ancient  builders  of  this  communistic  town  that 
they  chose  such  a  favorable  site  for  their  abode,  as  it  is  near  good  water, 
high  above  the  surrounding  mesas,  where  the  scenery  was  magnificent  and 
here  an  enemy  could  be  repulsed  by  a  mere  handful  of  men." 

With  all  this  they  took  the  precaution  to  build  a  circular  "watch 
tower,"  100  feet  above  and  300  feet  westward  of  the  town,  on  a  high  sand 
stone  promontory,  thus  doubly  insuring  the  safety.  From  this  tower  one 
could  see  the  approach  of  an  enemy  for  miles  away.  The  ruins  contain 
about  100  rooms,  and  were  originally  about  three  stories  in  height,  but  the 
rooms  were  filled  with  accumulated  dirt  and  stones.  One  peculiarity  of  the 
ruin  was  a  double  row  of  walls  two  feet  apart,  running  parallel  to  each 
other,  and  evidently  formed  a  passage  way,  or  covered  way,  from  one  part 
to  the  other. 

One  room  on  the  west  side  seemed  to  have  been  used  as  a  kiln  for  the 
baking  of  potbery.  Near  this  was  an  estufa,  measuring  thirty-six  feet 
across  and  of  considerable  depth.  Several  smaller  estufas  are  situated  on 
the  north  side  of  the  ruin." 

At  one  place  about  fifty  feet  from  the  ruins  we  were  surprised  to  note 


198 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


a  square,  chimney-like  hole,  carefully  walled  upon  all  sides.  It  measured 
fourteen  inches  across  and  went  down  fully  eight  feet.  It  was  neatly  faced 
with  hard  stone  and  had  a  stone  floor.  At  a  depth  of  six  feet  it  turned  and 
formed  a  horizontal  passageway. 

This  air-passage  is  worthy  of  notice  because  of  its  resemblance 
to  those  found  among  the  cliff-dwellings.  It  shows  that  the 
same  style  of  constructing  their  estufas  prevailed  among  the  two 
classes  of  people.  The  pueblo  near  which  it  was  found  was  in 
about  the  same  state  of  ruin  as  those  on  the  Chaco  and  the  Ani- 
mas  Rivers,  and  resembled  those  in  many  points.  The  estufa, 
however,  was  exactly  like  those  found  among  the  cliff-dwellings 

farther  west,  and  shows  that  the 
people  fled  there  after  a  prolonged 
attack  from  the  wild  tribes. 

This  leads  us  to  a  study  of  the 
estufas,  especially  those  which 
are  formed  among  the  ancient 
pueblos  and  the  cliff  dwellings. 
It  is  in  the  estufa  that  we  find 
the  key  to  the  history  of  the 
pueblos  and  a  proof  of  the  con 
nection  between  the  ancient  and 
modern  structures. 

It  appears  that  the  kiva  or  es 
tufa  was  originally  a  circular 
chamber,  patterned  after  the  cir- 


Fig.u.  AIR  PASSAGE  FOR  ESTUFA.  cular  huts>  but  it:  changed  its  form 

during  the  time  that  the  cliff- 
dwellings  were  erected,  and  it  finally  assumed  the  rectan 
gular  shape. 

The  round  shape  of  the  estufa  is  most  easily  explained  on 
the  hypothesis  that  it  is  a  reminiscence  of  the  Cliff-dwellers' 
nomadic  period.  The  construction  of  a  cylindrical  chamber 
within  a  block  of  rectangular  rooms  involves  no  small  amount 
of  labor.  We  know  how  obstinately  primitive  natives  cling 
to  everything  connected  with  their  religious  ideas.  What  is 
more  natural  than  the  retention  for  the  room  where  the 
religious  ceremonies  were  perfomed,  of  the  round  shape 
characteristic  of  the  nomadic  hut  ?  This  assumption  is  further 
corroborated  by  the  situation  of  the  hearth  and  the  construc 
tion  of  the  roof  of  the  estufa. 

Mr.  Mindeliff  says:  "The  circular  kiva  is  a  survival  of 
an  ancient  type — a  survival  supported  by  all  the  power  of 
religious  feeling  and  the  conservatism  in  religious  matters 


A  feature  which  seems  to  have  also  been  found  at  the  large  pueblo  on  the  Animas 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  199 

characteristic  of  savage  and  barbarous  life  ;  and  while  most 
of  the  modern  pueblos  have  at  the  present  time  rectangular 
kivas,  such,  for  example,  as  those  at  Tusayan,  at  Zuni,  and 
at  Acoma,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  circular  form  is  the 
more  primitive  and  was  formerly  used  by  some  tribes  which 
now  have  only  the  rectangular  form,  due  to  expediency  and 
the  breaking  down  of  old  traditions,  was  a  very  gradual  pro 
cess  and  proceeded  at  a  different  rate  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest  the  prevailing 
form  in  the  old  province  of  Cibola  was  rectangular,  although 
the  circular  kiva  was  not  entirely  absent ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  the  cliff  ruins  of  Canyon  de  Chelly,  whose  date  is 
partly  subsequent  to  the  sixteenth  century,  the  circular  kiva 
is  the  prevailing  if  not  the  exclusive  form." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  estufas  which  were  connected 
with  the  ancient  and  ruined  pueblos,  both  at  San  Juan  and 
the  Chaco,  were  all  of  them  circular  and  generally  placed 
inside  of  the  area  and  in  front  of  the  terraces.  They  were 
probably  used  for  ceremonial  rites  as  well  as  for  '•  council 
houses." 

The  estufas  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  were  placed  in  front  of  the 
line  of  the  houses  and  were  generally  entered  from  the  top. 
Some  of  them  were  built  in  with  the  walls  of  the  houses,  the 
outside  formed  a  rectangle  which  corresponded  with  the 
square  rooms,  but  the  inside  was  in  the  form  of  the  circle  ; 
the  walls  being  divided  into  six  spaces  with  ledges,  resembling 
broad  window  sills,  alternating  with  abutments.  The  open 
ing  to  the  air-chamber  was  near  the  floor  ;  the  fire-place  in  the 
center,  but  was  partitioned  off  from  the  air-chamber  by  a 
low  fragmentary  wall.  This  typical  form  of  the  estufas  shows 
that  the  religious  sentiment  prevailed  in  its  erection,  and  that 
it  was  a  sacred  chamber  in  which  the  four  divisions  of  the 
sky  and  the  zenith  and  nadir  were  symbolized. 

Among  the  modern  pueblos  the  estufa  was  a  rectangular 
room  with  a  division  in  the  floor;  the  sipapuh,  or  place  of 
emergence,  being  in  the  lower  floor.  The  upper  floor  was  the 
place  of  assembly,  on  this  the  ladder  rested  which  led  up  to 
the  opening  in  the  roof,  fire-place  being  generally  between 
the  foot  of  the  ladder  and  the  sipapuh.  In  these  kivas,  the 
roof  was  also  divided  into  stories,  the  upper  part  being 
arranged  so  as  to  lead  to  the  open  air,  the  whole  structure 
embodying  in  itself  the  myth  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
people  and  the  four  caves  through  which  they  passed  before 
they  reached  the  surface  of  the  earth.  [See  Plate.] 

Thus  we  have  three  different  forms  of  the  estufa,  each  one 
representing  a  different  stage  of  development,  but  all  show- 


200  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

ing  the  same  orgin  and  use,  and  embodying  the  same,  or 
similar,  myths  and  religious  symbols,  viz :  The  myth  of 
creation  and  the  symbol  of  the  sky  and  the  universe. 

As  evidence  of  the  development  of  the  estufas  from  earlier 
forms,  Mr.  Gushing  refers  to  certain  painted  marks  on  the 
walls  of  the  cliff-kivas,  which  he  thinks  represent  the  posts 
which  were  planted  at  four  equidistant  points,  and  supported 
the  large  huts,  or  round  houses,  which  constituted  the  abodes 
of  the  people,  and  correspond  almost  strictly  to  the  poles  of 
the  primitive  ' '  medicine  tent "  or  the  ' '  medicine  earth  lodge. " 
In  the  modern  square  kiva  of  Zuni,  there  are  still  placed 
parallel  marks,  from  the  tops  of  the  walls  to  the  floors,  every 
fourth  year,  which  are  called  by  the  Zunis  the  "holders-up" 
of  the  doorways  and  roofs. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  first  suggestion  of  enclosing  the  round  kiva 
in  a  square-walled  structure,  and  of  covering  the  latter  with  a  flat  roof, 
arose,  quite  naturally,  before  the  Cliff-dwellers  descended  into  the  plains. 

In  the  larger  and  longest  occupied  cliff -towns,  the  straight- walled  houses 
grew  outward,  wholly  around  the  kivas.  The  round  kiva  was  not  only  sur- 
sounded  by  a  square  enclosure  by  the  walls  of  the  nearest  houses,  but  it 
became  necessary  to  coyer  it  with  a  flat  roof,  in  order  to  render  continuous 
the  house  terrace  in  which  it  was  constructed.  An  evidence  that  this  was 
virtually  the  history,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  to  this  day  all  the  ceremonials 
performed  in  the  great  square  kivas  would  be  more  appropriate  in  round 
structures,  for  the  ceremonials  are  performed  in  circles,  and  the  singers  for 
dances  and  sacred  dramas  are  arranged  in  circles.1 

A  still  further  evidence  is  found  in  the  six  niches  and  six  pillars  so  char 
acteristic  of  the  cliff-dwellings,  for  in  this  was  typified  the  arrangement  of 
the  world  into  six  great  spaces,  corresponding  to  the  "four  quarters"  and 
the  "zenith  and  the  nadir."  The  grouping  of  the  towns  of  the  Zunis,  or  of 
the  wards  in  the  towns,  and  of  the  totems  in  the  wards,  followed  the  same 
mythical  division  of  the  world,  the  ceremonial  life  of  the  people  and  the 
governmental  arrangement  having  been  completely  systematized. 

Believing,  as  the  Zunis  do,  in  the  arrangement  of  the  universe  and  in 
the  distribution  of  the  elements  according  to  the  same  "world  quarters,"  it 
was  but  natural  that  they  should  have  societies  or  secret  orders  who  should 
dramatize  their  mythology  and  devices  for  symbolizing  the  arrangement  of 
the  sky  and  the  earth,  and  the  central  space  or  fire  in  their  kivas,  as  well 
as  in  their  larger  compact  pueblos. 

Mr.  Nordenskjold  has  referred  to  this  point  in  describing 
the  kivas  or  estufas  of  the  Cliff-dwellers. 

"Of  equal  significance  with  this  persistency  of  survival  in 
the  kiva,  of  the  earliest  cave-dwelling  hut  rooms,  through 
successively  higher  stages  in  the  development  of  cliff  archi 
tecture,  is  the  trace  of  its  growth  ever  outward  ;  for  in  nearly 
or  quite  all  of  the  larger  cliff  ruins,  the  kivas  occur  along  the 
fronts  of  the  houses  that  are  farthest  out  toward  the  mouths 
of  the  cavern,  but  some  are  found  quite  far  back  in  the  midst 
of  the  houses  ;  in  every  instance  of  this  kind  the  kivas  farthest 
back,  within  the  cell  cluster  proper,  not  only  the  oldest,  but 

(1)  See  Zuni  Creation  Myths.  Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of  Ethnology 
page  364. 


HISTORY  AND  ARCHITECTURE.  201 

in  other  ways,  plainly  mark  the  line  of  original  boundary  or 
frontage  of  the  entire  village.  In  some  of  the  largest  of  these 
ruins  the  frontage  line  has  been  extended,  the  houses  have 
grown  outward  and  around  and  past  the  kivas,  and  then,  to 
accommodate  increased  assemblies,  successively  built  in 
front  of  them,  not  once  or  twice,  but  in  some  cases  as  many 
as  five  times.' 

The  traditions  connected  with  the  estufas  are  worthy  of 
notice.  Mr.  Bandelier  says  of  these  : 

Allusions  occur  in  some  of  the  traditions,  suggesting  that  in  earlier  times 
one  class  of  kiva  was  devoted  wholly  to  the  purposes  of  a  ceremonial 
chamber,  and  was  constantly  occupied  by  a  priest.  An  altar  and  fetiches 


Fig.  15.    SIPAPUH  AND  PLUG. 

were  permanently  maintained  and  appropriate  groups  of  these  fetiches  were 
displayed  from  month  to  month,  as  the  different  priests  of  the  sacred  feasts 
succeeded  each  other,  each  new  moon  bringing  its  prescribed  feast. 

Many  of  the  kivas  were  built  by  religious  societies,  which  still  hold  their 
stated  observances  in  them,  and  in  Oraibi  several  still  bear  the  names  of  the 
societies  using  them.  A  society  always  celebrates  in  a  particular  kiva,  but 
none  of  these  kivas  are  now  preserved  exclusively  for  religious  purposes  ; 
they  are  all  places  of  social  resort  for  the  men,  especially  during  the  winter, 
when  they  occupy  themselves  with  the  arts  common  among  them.  The 
same  kiva  thus  serves  as  a  temple  during  a  sacred  feast,  at  other  times  as  a 
council  house  for  the  discussion  of  public  affairs.  It  is  also  used  as  a  work 
shop  by  the  industrious  and  as  a  lounging  place  by  the  idle. 

There  are  still  traces  of  two  classes  of  kiva,  marked  by  the  distinction 
that  only  certain  ones  contain  the  sipapuh,  and  in  these  the  more  important 
ceremonies  are  held.  It  is  said  that  no  sipapuh  has  been  made  recently. 
The  prescribed  operation  is  performed  by  the. chief  and  the  assistant  priests 
or  fetich  keepers  of  the  society  owning  the  kiva.  Some  say  the  mystic  lore 
pertaining  to  its  preparation  is  lost  and  none  can  now  be  made.  It  is  also 
said  that  a  stone  sipapuh  was  formerly  used  instead  of  the  cottonwood  plank 
now  commonly  seen.  The  use  of  stone  for  this  purpose,  however,  is  nearly 
obsolete,  though  the  second  kiva  of  Shupaulovi  contains  an  example  of  this 
ancient  form.  In  some  of  the  newest  kivas  of  Mashongnavi  the  plank  of 
the  sipapuh  is  pierced  with  a  square  hole,  which  is  cut  with  a  shoulder,  the 
shoulder  supporting  the  plug  with  which  the  orifice  is  closed.  This  is  a  de 
cided  innovation  on  the  traditional  form,  as  the  orifice  from  which  the  peo 
ple  emerged,  which  is  symbolized  in  the  sipapuh,  in  described  as  being  of 
circular  form  in  all  the  versions  of  the  Tusayan  genesis  myth.  The  presence 
of  the  sipapuh  possibly  at  one  time  distinguished  such  kivas  as  were  con 
sidered  strictly  consecrated  to  religious  observances  from  those  that  were  of 
more  general  use. 


202  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

The  designation  of  the  curious  orifice  of  the  sipapuh  as  "the  place  from 
which  the  people  emerged,"  in  connection  with  the  peculiar  arrangement  of 
the  kiva  interior,  with  its  change  of  floor  level,  suggested  to  the  author 
that  these  features  might  be  regarded  as  typifying  the  four  worlds  of  the 
genesis  myth  that  has  exercised  such  an  influence  on  Tusayan  customs; 
but  no  clear  data  on  this  subject  were  obtained  by  the  writer,  nor  has  Mr. 
Stephen,  who  is  especially  well  equipped  for  such  investigations,  discovered 
that  a  definite  conception  exists  concerning  the  significance  of  the  struc 
tural  plan  of  this  kiva.  Still,  from  many  suggestive  allusions  made  by  the 
various  kiva  chiefs  and  others,  he  also  has  been  led  to  infer  that  it  typifies 
the  four  "houses,"  or  stages,  described  in  their  creative  myths.  The  sipa 
puh,  with  its  cavity  beneath  the  floor,  is  certainly  regarded  as  indicating 
the  place  of  beginning,  the  lowest  house  under  the  earth,  the  abode  of 
Myuingwa,  the  Creator;  the  main  or  lower  floor,  represents  the  second 
stage;  and  the  elevated  section  of  the  floor  is  made  to  denote  the  third 
stage,  where  animals  were  created.  Mr.  Stephen  observed,  at  the  New 
Year  festivals,  that  animal  fetiches  were  set  in  groups  upon  this  platform. 
It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  the  ladder  leading  to  the  surface  is  invariably 
made  of  pine,  and  always  rests  upon  the  platform,  never  upon  the  lower 
floor;  and  in  their  traditional  genesis  it  is  stated  that  the  people  climbed 
up  from  the  third  house  (stage)  by  a  ladder  of  pine,  and  through  such  an 
opening  as  the  kiva  hatchway;  oply  most  of  the  stories  indicate  that  the 
opening  was  round.  The  outer  air  is  the  fourth  world,  or  that  now  occupied. 

Our  conclusion  is,  then,  that  the  history  of  the  mysterious 
people  who  occupied  the  different  parts  of  the  pueblo  terri 
tory  is  recorded  in  the  very  structures  which  they  built  but 
left  behind  them,  and  as  evidence  may  refer  to  the  fact  that 
the  pueblos  of  the  Zunis  and  Tusayans  were  constructed  by 
immigrants  from  different  directions,  the  diverse  character 
of  the  buildings  showing  that  here  are  gathered  the  sur 
vivors  from  all  the  districts — the  Cave-dwellers,  Cliff-dwell 
ers,  Pueblos,  and  all  the  transitional  types,  showing  even 
their  migration  routes,  and  giving  hints  as  to  their  former 
location  and  their  diverse  origin.  As  Mr.  dishing  has  said  : 

There  is  to  be  found,  throughout  the  Zuni  country,  ruins  of  the  actual 
transitional  type  of  the  pueblo,  formed  by  two  ancestral  branches  of  the 
Zunis — the  round  town,  with  its  cliff-like  outer  wall  merging  into  the 
square,  and  the  terraced  town,  with  its  broken  and  angular  or  straight 
outer  walls;  towns  from  the  round  forms  into  the  square.  This  was  brought 
about  by  a  two-fold  cause.  When  the  Cliff-dwellers  became  the  inhabitants 
of  the  plains,  not  only  their  towns,  but  their  kivas,  were  enlarged,  and  it 
became  difficult  to  roof  them  over  with  cross-laid  logs;  hence,  in  many 
cases  the  kiva  was  enclosed  in  a  square  wall,  in  order  that  the  rafters  par 
allel  to  one  another  might  be  thrown  across  the  top,  thus  making  a  flat 
roof  similar  to  the  terraced  roof  of  the  ordinary  house  structure. 

There  is  evidence,  also,  of  another  kind,  to  show  that  this  coming  to 
gether  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  changes  referred  to.  The  western  branch 
of  the  Zuni  ancestry,  who  were  the  people  of  the  "Midmost,"  according  to 
the  myths,  were,  from  the  beginning,  dwellers  in  square  structures,  and 
their  village  clusters,  or  pueblos,  were  built  precisely  on  the  plan  of  single 
house  structures.  When  several  of  their  dwelling  places  happened  to  be 
built  together,  they  were  combined,  so  the  pueblos  were  simple  extensions, 
mostly  recti-linear,  of  these  simple  houses. 

If  the  intruded  branch  of  the  Zuni  ancestry  were,  as  has  been  assumed, 
of  extreme  southwestern  origin,  we  should  expect  to  find  structural  modifi 
cations  of  the  Cliff-dweller  and  the  round  town  architecture.  These  ancient 
people,  of  the  Colorado  region,  had  attained  to  a  high  state  of  culture,  in 
Southern  Arizona  and  Northern  Mexico;  and  at  the  time  of  their  migra 
tion,  built  houses  of  a  different  type  from  those  among  the  cliffs  of  the  North. 


'Courtesy*  of  Santa  Fe  Railroad. 
SCENE   IX   THE    GRAND   CANYON. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


CLIFF  FORTRESSES. 

In  continuing  the  description  of  the  cliff-dwellings,  and  es 
pecially  of  those  which  are  situated  at  great  heights  and  pro 
vided  with  so  many  means  of  defense,  it  is  very  natural  that  we 
should  give  to  them  the  name  of  "Cliff  Fortresses." 

We  use  the  term  not  so  much  to  designate  a  separate  class 
of  structures,  or  to  prove  that  there  was  any  resemblance  be 
tween  them  and  modern  fortresses,  as  to  show  the  precautions 
which  the  Cliff-dwellers  took  to  protect  themselves  from  their 
enemies.  The  name  is  appropriate  when  applied  to  those  ruins 
which  were  situated  on  the  San  Juan,  and  which  have  been  de 
scribed  by  the  various  explorers  of  that  region,  and  have  been 
called  the  "Cliff  Palace,"  the  "Long  House,"  "Loop-Hole  Fort," 
"Balcony  House," ''Sandal  Cliff-House,"  all  of  which  were  really 
fortified  villages.* 

It  is  also  appropriate  when  applied  to  the  villages  which  were 
situated  on  the  summits  of  the  high  Mesas  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  which  were  occupied  by  various  tribes 
when  the  Spaniards  first  visited  that  valley.  It  is  especially  ap 
propriate  when  used  in  connection  with  the  ruins  which  have 
been  discovered  on  the  Rio  de  Chelley  and  the  Rio  Verde,  Wal 
nut  Canyon  and  the  regions  north  of  the  San  Francisco  moun 
tain. 

It  may  be  well,  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  to  confine  the 
name  to  those  structures  which  are  found  on  the  mesas  and  in 
the  sides  of  the  cliffs,  but  have  net  been  occupied  since  history 
began,  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  totally  unknown.  We  call 
them  fortresses  because  some  of  them  were  placed  above  pueblos 
which  were  situated  in  the  valleys,  and  were  evidently  places  of 
retreat  for  the  Pueblo  tribes  which  made  their  permanent  homes 
in  the  valleys,  and  because  they  seem  to  have  been  constructed 
with  the  purpose  of  securing  defense  to  the  people  who  had  been 


Kuin  Canon — they  all  nave  the  same  characteristics  ot  the  elm  houses  or  clitt  builders  in  tl 

cos  Canyon,  but  are  generally  smaller  and  more  completely  ruins.     They  are  mainly  siti 

the  side  of  the  cliff  and  have  walls  to  protect  them  from  an  invading  enemy.     In  a  few  cas 

are  separate  houses  on  the  summits  of  the  cliffs  which  have  a  very  modern  look,  as  they  an,  uun 

with  square  rooms  and  rectangular  doors,  the  most  of  them  two  stories  high.     Those  on  the  cliff 

may  possibly  have  been  built  after  the  advent  of  the  white  man,  though  this  is  a  mere   conjecture 


- 
ly  situated  in 
es  there 
re  built 


204  PRIMITIVE   ARCHITECTURE. 

driven  from  the  pueblos  to  the  sides  ot  the   cliffs  and  remained 
there  until  they  were  driven  altogether  from  the  region. 

It  has  been  held  by  a  few  explorers  that  there  were  no  fort 
resses  among  the  cliff-dwellings  or  pueblos;  that  what  appear 
to  be  such  were  the  "summer  homes"  of  a  people  who  resorted  to 
the  valleys  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating  the  soil,  and  who  built 
their  houses  in  the  ledges  to  protect  themselves  from  floods  and 
the  assaults  of  enemies.  This  opinion  is  not  held  by  many,  but 
as  it  is  advanced  by  Mr.  C.  Mindeleff  and  other  explorers  con 
nected  with  the  Ethnological  Bureau,  and  has  been  published  in 
their  reports,  we  give  it  here.*  The  following  is  the  language: 

The  study  of  the  ruins  in  Canyon  de  Chelley  has  led  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  cliff  ruins  there  are  generally  subordinate  structures,  connected 
with  and  inhabited  at  the  same  time  as  a  number  of  large  home  villages  lo 
cated  on  the  canyon  bottoms,  and  occupy  much  the  same  relation  to  the  lat 
ter  that  Moen-Kepi  does  to  Oraibi,  or  that  Nutria,  Pescado  and  Ojo  Cali- 
ente  do  to  Zuni,  and  that  they  are  the  'unctional  analogues  of  the  "watch 
towers"  of  the  San  Juan  and  of  Zuni  and  the  brush  shelters  of  Tusayan.  In 
other  words,they  were  horticultural  outlooks  occupied  only  during  the  farm 
ing  season.  It  might  be  expected  that  the  Canyon  de  Chelley  ruins  would 
hardly  come  within  the  scheme  of  the  classification  with  those  found  in  the 
open  country;  for  here,  if  any  where,  we  should  find  corroboration  of  the 
old  idea  that  the  cliff  ruins  were  the  homes  and  last  refuge  of  a  race  harass 
ed  by  powerful  enemies,  driven  to  the  construction  of  dwellings  in  inaccess 
ible  cliffs,  where  a  last  ineffectual  stand  was  made  against  their  foes;  or  the 
more  recent  theory  that  they  represent  an  early  stage  in  the  development 
of  Pueblo  architecture,  when  the  Pueblo  builders  were  few  in  number  and. 
surrounded  by  numerous  enemies.  Neither  of  these  theories  are  in  accord 
with  facts.  A  still  later  idea  is  that  the  cliff-dwellings  were  used  as  places 
of  refuge  by  various  pueblo  tribes,  who,  when  the  occasion  of  such  use  was 
passed,  returned  to  their  original  homes,  or  toothers  constructed  like  them. 
This  makes  plain  some  of  the  cliff  ruins,  but  if  applicable  at  all  to  those  in 
de  Chelley,  it  applies  to  only  a  small  number  of  them. 

The  same  author  says  there  are  great  differences  in  kind  be 
tween  the  great  valley  pueblos,  located  without  reference  to  de 
fense,  and  depending  for  security  on  the  size  and  number  of  their 
population,  of  which  Zuni  and  Taos  are  examples,  and  the  vil 
lages  which  are  located  on  high  mesas  and  projecting  tongues  of 
rock;  in  other  words,  on  defensive  sites,  where  reliance  for  secu 
rity  was  placed  on  the  character  of  the  site  occupied,  such  as  the 
Tusayan  villages  of  to-day. 

Doubtless  in  the  early  days  of  Pueblo  architecture,  small  settlements 
were  the  rule.  Probably  these  settlements  were  located  in  the  valleys,  on 
sites  most  convenient  for  horticulture,  each  gens  occupying  its  own  village. 
Incursions  by  neighboring  wild  tribes  or  by  hostile  neighbors,  and  constant 
annoyance  and  loss  at  their  hands,  gradually  compelled  the  removal  of 
these  little  villages  to  sites  more  easily  defended.and  also  forced  the  seggre- 
gation  of  various  related  gentes  into  one  group  or  village.  At  a  still  later 
period  the  same  motive  compelled  a  further  removal  to  even  more  difficult 
sites.  Many  villages  stopped  at  this  stage.  Some  were  in  this  stage  at  the 
time  of  the  Discovery; — Acoma  for  example.  Finally,  whole  villages,  whose 
inhabitants  spoke  the  same  language,  combined  to  found  one  larger  vil- 


*See  i6th  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  "The  Cliff  Ruins  of  Canyon  de  Chelley,' 
byCosmos  Mindeleff,  p.  79-198. 


inta  Fe  Railroad. 


THE    HIDDEN    TRAIL    AMONG   THE    MOUNTAINS. 


CLIFF    HOUSE    IN    WALNUT    CANYON. 


CLIFF    FORTRESSES.  205 

lage,  which  depending  now  on  size  and  numbers  for  defense,  was  again  lo- 
rated  on  a  site  convenient  for  horticulture,  Thtse  constitute  the  large 
"communal  houses,"  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  which  are  as  fol 
lows:  Each  building  consisted  of  an  agglomeration  of  a  great  number  of 
small  cells.without  any  larger  halls  of  particularly  strikingdimensions.  All 
the  buildings,  except  the  out-houses  or  additions,  were  at  least  two  stories 
high,  and  often  several  stories  high.  The  lower  story  was  entered  only 
from  the  roof.  A  dead  wall  without  windows  was  the  only  defense.  The 
various  stories  receded  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  and  were  reached  by 
ladders. 

The  estufa,  orkiva,  often  circular  in  form,  but  some  times  placed  with 
in  square  walls,  the  corners  fillled  in, making  them  circular  inside  and  square 
outside,  was  another  important  element. 

The  ruins  of  de  Chelley  show  unmistakably  several  periods  of  occupa 
tion  extending  over  considerable  time,  and  each  comparatively  complete. 
They  fall  easily  into  the  classification  suggested  by  Mr.  G.  Xordenskjold.* 

In  the  description  given  by  Mr.  Mindeleff  the  following  clas 
sification  has  been  employed: 

1.  Old  villages  on  open  Mtes. 

2.  Home  villages  on  bottom  lands. 

3.  Home  villages  located  for  defense. 

4.  Cliff  outlooks  or  farming  shelters. 

This  classification  is,  in  the  main,  correct,  but  it  would  be 
better  if  it  could  be  made  to  emphasize  the  fortified  character  of 
the  third  class,  namely,  the  "home  villages  located  for  defense, "for 
these  are  the  structures  to  which  we  give  the  name  of  "Cliff 
Fortresses."  We  maintain  that  they  mark  a  period  in  the  history 
of  all  the  pueblo  tribes.  It  was  probably  the  same  period  in 
which  the  tribes  on  the  Rio  Grande,  on  the  Zuni  river  and  other 
localities  in  the  interior  were  compelled  to  build  their  villages 
on  the  summits  of  the  mesas,  a  few  of  which  are  still  occupied, 
but  the  majority  of  them  are  in  ruins.  It  was  a  period  which 
preceded  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards,  but  was  subsequent  to  the 
incursions  of  the  wild  tribes,  such  as  the  Apaches,  Comanches 
and  Navajoes,  the  date  of  which  cannot  be  determined. 

There  may  have  been  a  period  before  the  incursions  of  these 
tribes,  and  at  intervals  during  the  time  of  their  presence,  when  the 
people  occasionally  built  houses  in  the  side  of  the  cliffs  as  sum 
mer  homes. 

This  may  be  true  of  certain  localities  which  are  found  west 
of  the  Grand  Canyon,  in  Colorado,  for  there  are  here  what 
Maj.  J.  W.  Powell  calls  "haciendas"  or  agricultural  settlements. 

It  may  also  be  true  of  certain  localities  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Gila  and  Rio  Verde,  and  other  streams  which  furnish  rich  soils 
on  their  borders,  but  are  likely  to  overflow  the  lands  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  Pueblos,  who 
dwelt  on  the  mesas,  to  go  long  distances  away,  and  raise  their 
crops.  In  such  a  case  they  would  often  build  temporary  houses 

*Mr.  Nordenskjold's  classification  of  the  ruins  in  the  Mancos  Canyon  and  Mesa  Verde  region 
is  as  follows:  i.  Ruins  in  the  valleys  or  on  the  plains  or  on  the  plateaus.  ?.  Ruins  in  the  walls  of 
the  canyons,  subdivided  as  follows:  (a)  Caves  inhabited  without  the  erection  of  any  buildings — 
cave  dwellings;  (b)  cliff-houses  or  buildings  erected  in  caves. 


206  PRIMITIVE    ARCHITECTURE. 

as  their  summer  homes.  But  these  houses,  which  were  erected 
on  the  high  points  which  overlooked  the  streams,  are  generally 
made  with  one,  two,  or  three  rooms,  and  are  scattered  here  and 
there,  and  look  like  a  straggling  village.  They  served  the  same 
purpose  as  the  cavate  houses  which  are  so  nnmerous  in  the  val 
ley  of  the  Rio  Verde  and  are  near  the  irrigating  ditches  which 
are  so  celebrated  in  these  localities 

The  villages  on  the  bottom  lands,  and  the  cavate  houses  in 
the  sides  of  the  cliffs  are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  perma 
nent  villages  on  the  mesas.  Nor  are  they  to  be  confounded  with 
the  cliff-dwellings  which  are  so  numerous  in  the  Mancos  Canyon 
and  the  Canyon  de  Chelley  and  other  places.  We  call  these 
"cliff  fortresses"  to  distinguish  them  from  the  high  houses  and 
the  cliff  palaces,  and  the  ordinary  pueblos.  They  are  villages 
and  have  all  the  conveniences  and  necessities  of  the  pueblo  vil 
lages,  whether  situated  on  the  valleys  or  on  the  mesas.  Yet  the 
provisions  for  defense  are  so  conspicuous  and  so  preponderate 
over  the  provisions  for  dwelling  places,  that  we  must  regard  them 
as  "forts"  in  which  the  defenders  have  gathered  their  families  in 
order  to  protect  them  from  the  incursion  of  luiking  foes.  They 
may  be  supposed  to  mark  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  Pueblo 
tribes,  but  a  period  concerning  which  little  is  known. 

The  history  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  is  as  follows  :  First,  the 
great  communistic  house,  built  after  the  honey-comb  pattern, 
either  on  the  mesas  or  in  the  valleys,  furnished  with  estufas,  a 
lookout  tower,  and  various  signal  stations  on  the  heights  around. 
Second,  the  building  of  the  village  or  fortress  in  the  sides  of  the 
cliffs,  with  the  store  houses  in  the  rear  instead  of  in  the  lower 
apartments,  the  passageways  between  the  dwellings  and  the  sides 
of  the  cliffs,  with  the  estufas  on  the  terraces  in  front,  with  towers 
either  at  the  end  or  in  the  central  part,  and  rooms  furnished  with 
loop-holes  for  shooting  arrows  at  the  assailants.* 

There  was  a  third  period  in  the  history  of  the  San  Juan  valley 
in  which  the  people  were  driven  from  their  villages,  their  clan 
organization  was  broken  up,  and  society  was  disintegrated.  Those 
who  remained  were  compelled  to  build  separate  houses  high  up 
in  the  sides  of  the  cliffs,  protecting  their  families  as  best  they 
could.  About  the  only  unity  there  was  to  the  tribe  or  clan,  con 
sisted  in  giving  the  alarm  when  an  enemy  came  in  sight,  and 
having  signal  stations  and  towers  on  all  the  high  points,  and  cul 
tivating  the  valleys  in  bands,  whose  only  safety  was  found  in 
separation  and  flight  to  the  so-called  "high  houses." 

A  fourth  period  was  that  which  followed   the   advent  of  the 


*The  same  period  was  marked  in  other  localities  by  building  the  pueblos  on  the  summits  of 
the  high  mesas  and  protecting  them  by  dead  walls  around  the  lower  stories.  There  were  locali 
ties  m  which  no  mesa  could  be  reached  and  the  people  were  compelled  to  fortify  their  villages  by 
enclosing  them  in  a  great  wall,  making  passage-ways  between  the  buildings,  so  giving  the  vil 
lage  a  checker-board  fashion  but  providing  a  central  citadel  or  tower  which  served  also  as  a  tem 
ple,  making  this  the  last  place  of  refuge  in  case  of  assault  and  disaster. 


CLIFF    FORTRESSES.  207 

Spaniards,  in  which  certain  tribes  in  the  west  part  of  the  val 
ley  seem  to  have  built  separate  houses  and  square  towers  on 
the  edges  of  the  cliffs.  At  least  houses  have  been  discovered 
and  described  by  certain  explorers  which  are  separate  from  one 
another  and  have  a  very  modern  look.  It  is  possible  that  they 
were  erected  after  the  advent  of  the  white  man,  though  there 
is  no  record  of  this.  They  have  been  long  unoccupied,  but  are 
in  a  fair  state  of  preservation. 

It  is  the  middle  period  which  most  interests  us,  for  at  this 
time  nearly  all  of  the  so-called  fortresses  were  erected.  These 
fortresses  were  not  confined  to  the  sides  of  the  cliffs,  but  were 
built  upon  the  mesas,  and  were  the  permanent  villages  of  the 
people  during  the  time  of  invasion.  There  may  have  been  vil 
lages  in  the  valleys,  built  after  the  "great  house"  pattern,  good 
specimens  of  which  are  still  found  in  the  valley  of  the  Chaco, 
but  the  fortresses  on  the  mesas  and  in  the  sides  of  the  cliffs  were 
also  permanent  villages.  The  summer  homes  were  composed 
of  isolated  houses  which  were  scattered  among  the  cliffs,  or  were 
built  upon  the  slight  elevations,  but  did  not  often  possess  the 
component  parts  of  village  architecture,  such  as  estufas,  towers, 
store  houses  and  tanks,  or  reservoirs. 

The  point  which  we  make  is  that  there  were  fortified  villages 
or  fortresses  which  possessed  all  the  elements  of  a  regular  pueblo, 
and  were  occupied  as  permanent  abodes,  and  not  as  a  tempor 
ary  resorts.  They  were  not  mere  refuges  for  the  people  in  the 
time  of  attack,  nor  summer  homes  for  an  agricultural  people. 
We  must  regard  them  as  fortresses,  or  fortified  villages,  which 
the  defenders  built  for  the  purpose  of  protection  from  the  incur 
sions  of  lurking  foes,  into  which  they  gathered  their  families  and 
their  stores  of  provisions  and  personal  possessions,  making  their 
inaccessibility  the  chief  means  for  defense.  They  made  them 
strongholds  which  they  occupied  permanently.  They  mark 
an  early  period  in  the  history  of  the  people — a  period  con 
cerning  which  scarcely  anything  is  known.  About  the  only 
evidence  is  that  which  is  found  in  the  peculiar  style  of  architec 
ture  and  the  human  remains  which  have  been  discovered. 

Some  have  supposed  that  this  condition  of  affairs  was  pecu 
liar  to  certain  localities,  and  was  mainly  prevalent  in  the  "swarm 
ing  place"  of  the  Pueblo  tribes,  namely,  the  valley  of  the  San 
Juan,  but  the  evidence  is  that  it  was  spread  over  the  entire  pueblo 
territory  and  that  all  the  tribes  passed  through  the  same  exper 
ience.  It  is  probable  that  the  people  on  the  San  Juan  and  its 
tributaries  bore  the  brunt  of  the  attack  of  the  enemies  which 
came  down  upon  them  from  the  mountains  of  the  north,  and 
were  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  cliffs.  It  would  seem,  how 
ever,  that  there  were  wild  tribes  surrounding  the  entire  pueblo 
territory  and  that  they  constantly  beset  the  villages  which  were 
on  the  edges,  and  first  compelled  them  to  fortify  their  homes, 


238 


PRIMITIVE   ARCHITECTURE, 


and  afterwards  drove  them  from  these  outlying   fortified  posts 
towards  the  center  of  the  territory. 

It  will  be  understood  that  there  were  among  the  Cliff-dwell 
ers  and  Pueblos  various  methods  of  defending  their  villages,  each 
one  of  which  was  adapted  to  the  particular  region  in  which  they 
were  placed.  These  may  be  classified  as  follows: 

I.  In  the  region  where  the  Cave-dwellers  had  their  homes  the 
main  dependence  was  upon  the  "lookout,"  or,  in  other  words 
upon  the  view  furnished  from  their  homes  in  the  cliffs. 

There  are  many  specimens  of  this  kind  of  fortress,  some  of 
which  may  be  found  on  the  summits  of  the  San  Francisco  moun 
tains  and  in  the  midst  of  the  craters  of  the  extinct  volcanoes. 


ISOLATED   CLIFF    NEAR   FLAGSTAFF. 

Oi-hers  are  found  in  the  midst  of  the  Potreros  and  high  isolated 
mesas  which  are  situated  in  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  The 
best  example  of  this  class  will  be  found  in  the  two  isolated  buttes 
or  mesas  which  are  called  Shufinne  and  Puye.  The  following  is 
Mr.  Bandelier's  description  of  these: 

The  Shufinne  contains  a  complete  cave  village,  burrowed  out  of  the 
soft  rock  by  the  aid  of  stone  implements.  The  other  specimen  of  artificial 
cave-dwellings  is  separated  from  it  by  a  distance  of  only  three  miles.  Here 
is  quite  a  large  pueblo  ruin,  two  stories  high,  that  crowns  the  top  of  the 
cliff,  but  at  Shufinne  the  buildings  lie  at  the  base  of  the  cliff  which  looms 
up  conspicuously  like  a  bold  white  castle.  There  are  scattered  groups  of 
caves  near  by,  some  of  which  extend  at  intervals  on  a  line  nearly  a  mile 
long,  and  in  some  places  beams  protrude  from  the  rock,  showing  that  houses 
had  been  built  against  it  along  side  the  cave  dwellings. 

As  lookout  places  both  cliffs  are  magnificently  situated,  commanding 
in  every  direction  a  superb  view.  The  Rio  Grande  valley  is  visible  from 
north  of  San  Juan  to  San  Ildefonso,  and  from  Santa  Clara  to  the  gorges 


CLIFF   FORTRESSES. 


200 


of  Chimago.  The  \vhole  eastern  chain  stretches  out  in  the  distance  from 
Taos  to  its  most  southerly  spurs  below  Santa  Fe.  In  case  of  imminent 
danger  the  inhabitants  of'  one  rock  could  signal  to  those  of  the  other,  night 
or  day,  as  there  was  nothing  to  obstruct  the  view.  The  ascent  to  the  caves 
is  tedious,  for  the  slope  is  steep  and  it  is  tiresome  to  clamber  over  the  frag 
ments  of  pumice  and  tufa  that  cover  it.  Once  above,  we  find  ourselves  be 
fore  small  doorways,  both  low  and  narrow,  a  single  door  which  sometimes 
serves  as  an  entrance  to  a  group  of  as  many  as  three  cells,  connected  by 
short,  narrow  and  low  tunnels,  large  enough  for  a  small  person  to  squeeze 
through.  There  were  little  air-holes,  or  possibly  loop  holes,  m  the  outer 
walls  but  no  fire  places,  although  the  evidences  of  fire  are  plain  in  almost 
every  room. 

Every  feature  of  a  p'ueblo  household  is  found  in  connection  with  these 
caves.  As  defensive  positions  they  were  free  from  danger  from  assault  by 
an  Indian  force.  Only  an  ambush  prepared  under  a  cover  of  darkness 
could  injure  those  who  had  descended  from  their  lofty  abodes,  in  order  to 


CAVE  FORTRESS  NEAR  SAN  FRANCISCO  MOUNTAIN. 


fetch  water  or  till  the  fields.  Nevertheless,  constant  harassing  might  at 
last  compel  the  inhabitants  to  abandon  even  such  impregnable  positions.* 
Cave  villages  of  this  kind  are  quite  numerous,  occupying  an  area  of  about 
300  square  miles. 

West  of  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Rito  de  Los  Frijoles, 
there  are  deep  canyons  which  traverse  the  country  like  gashes  several 
hundred  feet  in  depth.  In  the  cliffs  of  this  romantic  valley  the  largest  and 
best  preserved  cave  villages  are  to  be  seen, — capable  of  accommodating 
1,500  people.* 

Wherever  the  caves  stand  without  pueblo  ruins  in  their  immediate 
vicinity,  they  show  c.lmost  exclusively  the  old,  old  kinds  of  potsherds — the 
black  and  white,  or  gray,  and  corrugated.  This  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  artifical  caves  and  the  small  houses  belong  to  one  and  the  same  period, 
anterior  to  that  of  the  construction  of  the  many  storied  pueblos.t 

*See  Final  Report  of  Investigations  among  Indians  of  S.W.  U.S.  Part  II,  p.  74. 
fSee  Ibid, p. 160. 


210  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE, 

Cave  villages  of  this  kind  have  been  described  by  Mr.  C.  F. 
Lummis,  as  situated  among  the  "Potreros,"  and  in  the  deep 
canyons  just  west  of  the  Rio  Grande;  and  attention  is  called  to 
the  remarkable  stone  idols,  or  effigies,  which  are  supposed  to  be 
the  totems  of  this  people. 

One  of  the  best  specimens  of  a  fortress  situated  so  as  to  com 
mand  an  extensive  view  is  the  one  which  is  represented  in  the 
cut  which  has  been  kindly  furnished  by  Mr.  C.  A.  Higgins,  of 
the  Santa  Fe  railroad,  who  describes  it  as  follows : 

Nine  miles  from  Flagstaff,  and  only  half  a  mile  from  the  stage  road 
to  the  Grand  canyon,  cave  buildings  are  to  be  seen,  whose  slopes  are  buried 
deep  in  black  and  red  cinder.  The  caves,  so-called,  were  the  vent-holes 
of  the  volcano  in  the  time  of  the  eruptions  of  lava  and  ashes  that  have  so 
plentifully  covered  the  region  for  many  miles  about.  Countless  ragged 
caverns,  opening  directly  under  feet  and  leading  by  murky  windings  into 
unknown  depths  in  the  earth's  crust.  Many  are  simple  pot-holes  a  few 
yards  in  depth,  then  subterranean  leads,  choked  up  and  concealed.  Others 
yawn  black,  like  burrows  of  huge  beasts  of  prey.  In  many  instances  they 
are  surrounded  by  loose  stone  walls,  part  of  which  are  standiug  just  as 
when  their  singular  inhabitants  peered  through  the  crevices  at  an  approach 
ing  foe.  Broken  pottery  abounds  scattered  in  small  fragments,  like  a 
talus,  to  the  very  foot  of  the  hill,  The  pottery  is  similar  to  that  found  in 
the  cliff-dwellings.  It  is  probable  the  Cave-dwellers  and  the  Cliff-dwellers 
were  the  same  people.  The  coarser  vessels  are  simply  glazed  or  roughly 
corrugated;  the  smaller  ones  are  decorated  by  regular  indentations  in  imi 
tation  of  the  scales  of  the  rattlesnake,  or  painted  in  black  and  white  geo 
metric  designs. 


II.  The  commonest  form  of  defense  was  to  place  the  village  or 
"great  house"  upon  a  high  and  isolated  mesa,  and  make  the  situ 
ation  itself  the  source  of  security,  but  even  in  such  cases  there 
were  special  provisions  for  defense  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
rooms  above  the  terraces,  leaving  the  lower  story  without  any 
entrance. 

This  was  the  peculiarity  which  the  Spaniards  noticed*  in  all 
the  pueblos,  though  some  of  them  were  more  difficult  to  ap 
proach  than  others.  Taos,  Laguna,  Acoma,  San  Domingo,  all  of 
them  located  in  the  eastern  part  ol  the  pueblo  territory,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande,  occupied  such  isolated  positions  that 
the  Spaniards  found  it  difficult  to  conquer  them,  and  some  of 
them  they  never  did  wholly  conquer. 

The  early  American  explorers  were  impressed  with  the  de- 

*The  story  of  Coronado's  march  was  told  by  four  persons  who  took  part  in  it|  Mendoza, 
Jerramillo  and  an  anonymous  writer  tand  Castanedo.  The  following  quotations  will  show  the 
impressions  formed: 

"Acuco  was  discovered  by  Alvarado  in  1540,  who  described  it  as  "situated  on  a  precipitous 
cliff  so  high  that  an  arquebus  ball  could  scarcely  reach  the  top."  "Situated  on  the  top,  the  only 
approach  was  by  an  artific  al  stairway  cut  in  the  rock  of  nearly  300  steps,  and  for  the  last  18  feet 
only  holes  into  which  to  insert  the  toes."  "Three  days  farther  west  brought  them  to  Tiguex,  con 
taining  12  villages,  and  situated  on  the  banks  of  a  river."  Continuing  his  journey  five  days  more 
he  reached  Cicuys,  "which  he  found  to  be  a  strongly  fortified  village,  and  consisted  of  four  storj- 
terraced  houses  built  around  a  long  square.  It  was  also  protected  by  a  low  stone  wall  and  was- 
capable  of  putting  500  men  into  the  field.  "Coronado  and  his  troops  also  reached  this  rock. 
They  climbed  the  heights  of  Acuco  with  great  difficulty,  but  the  native  women  accomplished  it 
with  ease.  At  the  end  of  the  first  day's  march  from  Acoma  they  rested,  where  was  "the  fairest 
town  in  all  the  province,  in  which  were  private  houses  seven  stories  high."  Probably  Laguna. 


CLIFF   FORTRESSES-  211 

fensive  character  of  these  isolated  villages,  and  have  often  de 
scribed  them  * 

An  excellent  summary  of  the  various  fortifications,  or  fortified 
villages,  which  may  be  found  in  the  pueblo  territory,  has  been 
given  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Bell,  an  English  gentleman,  who  accompany 
ing  the  surveyors  of  the  Southern  Pacific  railroad,  afterwards 
wrote  a  book  entitled  "New  Tracks  in  North  America."  In  this 
book  he  furnishes  a  description  of  the  country  and  its  topogra 
phy,  giving  the  elevation  of  the  mountain  peaks,f  the  amount  of 
territory  drained  by  the  different  rivers,^  the  barriers]  which 
separate  the  different  river  valleys,  the  pueblos  in  this  region  and 
the  population  of  each.  He  also  quotes  from  Prof.  J.  S.  New- 
berry,  who  accompanied  one  of  the  earliest  exploring  parties, 
that  of  Captain  McComb,  and  who  described  the  pueblos  which 
he  visited. 

The  ruins  described  by  Mr.  Bell  were  situated  in  the  differ 
ent  districts,  namely:  on  the  Rio  Grande  and  its  tributaries;  on 
the  plateau  where  the  Zuni  and  Tusayan  tribes  still  live;  on  the 
Rio  Verde  and  Little  Colorado  north  of  the  San  Francisco  moun 
tains;  in  the  valley  of  the  Gila  and  its  tributaries;  and,  lastly,  in 
Sonora,  where  are  the  ruins  of  the  Casas  Grandes.  We  give  his 
descriptions  of  the  first  three  or  four  localities,  and  leave  the 
fortress  of  Sonora  for  another  time. 

The  isolated  pueblos  which  lie  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
main  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  are  very  different  in  appearance  from  the 
simple  one  story  buildings  which  are  occupied  by  the  natives.  Laguna  is 
built  on  the  summit  of  a  cliff  some  forty  feet  high,  and  possesses  several 
natural  advantages  for  defense.  Acoma  is  a  large  village  on  the  summit  of 

*The  following  are  the  American  writers  and  the  dates  of  their  publications: 

Wm.  H.  Emory,  in  1846-7,  wrote  to  Albert  Gallatin,  then  secretary  of  state,  that  he  had  met 
with  an  Indian  race  living  in  four-story  houses  built  upon  rocky  promontories,  inaccessible  to  a 
savage  foe,  and  cultivating  the  soil.  His  description  was  confirmed  by  Lieutenant  Albert.  Mr. 
Gallatin  contributed  to  the  transactions  of  the  American  Ethnological  Society  [Vol.  II,  p.  in, 
1848]  an  article  on  the  subject,  and  Mr.  E.  G.  Squier  at  the  same  time  contributed  to  the  Ameri 
can  Review  an  article  on  the  Ancient  Monuments  and  the  Aboriginal  Semi-Civilized  Nations  of 
New  Mexico  and  California.  Mr.  Squier  identified  Cibola  with  Zuni.  Lieut.  J.  H.  Simpson,  in 
his  Journal  of  Military  Reconnoisance  from  Santa  Fe  to  the  Navajo  country,  gave  a  detailed 
description  of  the  ruins  in  Chaco  valley,  also  in  the  Rio  de  Chelly,  and  of  the  inhabited  pueblos  of 
the  Zunis.  Lieut.  A.  W.  Whipple  and  W.  W.  Turner  published,  in  the  reports  of  the  Pacific  rail 
road  survey  a  description  of  the  same  pueblos.  H.  M.  Breckenridge.  in  1857,  maintained  that 
Cibola  was  the  well-known  "Casa  grand"  on  the  Gila.  R.  H.  Kerns,  in  1854,  and  Henry  Scooll 
craft,  in  their  "History  of  the  Indian  Tribes  in  North  America"  [Vol.  VI,  p.  70],  upheld  the  Zun- 
theory.  In  the  year  1869,  W.  H.  Davis  published  a  book  in  Doylestown,  Penn.,  entitled  "Ei 
Gringo;  also  the  Spanish  Conquest  of  New  Mexico,"  and  agreed  with  the  above  writers.  L.  H. 
Morgan  thought  he  identified  Cibola  in  the  "remarkable  group  of  ruined  stone  structures"  in  the 
valley  of  the  Chaco,  as  being  the  seven  citiee  of  Cibola,  and  published  an  article  in  the  North 
American  Review,  in  1869,  to  that  effect.  H.  H.  Bancroft,  in  his  "Native  Races,"  adopted  the 
Zuni  theory.  The  same  view  was  held  by  L.  Bradford  Prince,  chiefjustice  of  New  Mexico,  in  his 
historical  sketches  of  New  Mexico  from  the  earliest  records  to  the  American  occupation,  in  1888 
[131  PP-1 

fFremont's  Peak,  13,570  feet;  Long's  Peak,  13,575  feet;  Mt.  Lincoln,  17,000  feet;  Santa  Fe, 
6,846  feet;  Albuquerque,  5,033 feet. 

IThe  square  miles  embraced  in  the  Columbia  river  valley,  230,000;  the  Colorado  river,  200,000 
the  Rio  Grande,  210,000;  the  Great  Basin,  282,000;  the  Mississippi  river,  1,400,000. 

||The  country  from  the  Gila  eastward  rises  step  by  step  and  mesa  upon  mesa.  Upon  the  edges 
of  several  of  the  mesas  may  be  found  interesting  fortified  towns.  In  the  interval  between  Fort 
Defiance  and  the  Rio  Grande  rises  Mount  Taylor  which,  like  San  Francisco  moun 
tain,  has  broken  through  the  sedimentary  strata  and  poured  over  them  floods  of  lava,  which  are 
as  fresh  as  if  ejected  yesterday.  Between  the  headwaters  of  the  Rio  Gila  and  Colorado  Chiquito 
s  a  very  elevated  tract  known  as  the  "mogollon  escarpment." 


212 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE 


a  flat  mesa,  whose  perpendicular  cliffs  rise  to  the  height  of  from  300  to  400 
feet.  The  ancient  pueblo  Taos  consists  of  a  compact  fortress  formed  of 
terraces,  seven  stories  high,  and  built  on  a  rock  overlooking  a  stream. 

Yenegas,  Coronado,  and  all  the  early  Spanish  explorers  in  New  Mexico, 
have  described  a  number  of  many  storied  fortresses  which  are  now  no 
more.*  Those  mentioned  with  the  exception  of  Zuni  and  the  seven  Moqui 
villages,  are  the  only  native  fortresses  which  now  remain. 

Pecos  was  a  fortified  town  of  several  stories.  It  was  built  upon  the 
summit  of  a  mesa  which  jutted  out  into  the  valley  of  the  stream,  and  over 
looked  the  valley  for  many  miles.  The  Spaniards  lived  there  until  the 


middle  of  the  last  century.  A  few  natives  re 
mained  and  kept  alive  the  sacred  fires  in  the 
estufas.  The  wild  Indians  of  the  mountains 
finally  attacked  the  place  and  left  Pecos  deso 
lated. 

There  are  many  ruins  situated  northeast 
from  San  Francisco  mountain,  located  on  the 
summit  of  the  mesas.  They  are  mostly  three 
stories  high  with  a  court  common  .to  the  whole 
community  forming  the  center.  The  first  story 
or  basement  consists  of  a  stone  wall  fifteen  fee't 
high,  the  top  of  which  forms  a  landing,  and  a 
flight  of  stone  steps  leads  from  the  first  to  the  second  story. 

Further  to  the  northwest,  and  nearer  to  Colorado,  is  a  group  of  pueblos 
larger  than  those  of  the  Moquis,  but  situated  like  them  on  the  flat  summits 
of  mesas  but  containing  estufas,  reservoirs;  aqueducts,  terraces  and  walls 

*The  ruins  maybe  classed  under  three  heads: 
i.  Ruins  of  many  storied  strongholds. 
z.  Ruins,  the  foundations  of  which  only  remain. 
3^  Ruins  of  buildings  constructed  under  Spanish  rule, 

Under  the  first  class,  which  are  east  of  the  Rio  Grande,  there  are  four'ruined  villages'which 
were  fortified. 


CLIFF    FORTRESSES. 


213 


of  buildings  at  "east  four  stories  high.  Xo  traces  have  been  found  of  the 
former  inhabitants.  At  Pueblo  Creek  are  the  remains  of  several  fortified 
pueblos,  crowning  the  heights  which  command  Aztec  pass. 

The  ruins  on  the  Rio  Verde  are  worthy  of  notice.  The  river  banks 
were  covered  by  ruins  of  stone  houses  and  regular  fortifications  which  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  inhabited  lor  centuries. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  well  to  recall  the  villages  which 
were  situated  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  which  belonged  to  the  same 
system  with  those  which  have  been  described,  but  have  so  long 
been  unoccupied,  that  they  have  been  called  by  Mr.  C.  F. 
Lummis,  the  cities  that  were  forgotten. 


KUIXED  PUEBLO  ON  A  MESA— WITH  OUTLOOK. 


These  seem  to  have  been  fortified  towns.  They  are  called 
by  the  general  name  of  Gran  Quivira.  They  were  occupied  by 
the  Spanish  missionaries  but  were  finally  overthrown  by  the  sav 
ages  and  are  now  in  ruins. 

Near  Quivria  Mr.  Bandelier  discovered  a  bold  eminence 
which  bears  the  remains  of  a  pueblo  in  which  the  rooms  were 
disposed  in  a  circle  around  the  top  of  the  hill  and  two  estufas, 
and  not  far  from  the  village  an  artificial  pond.  He  says: 

What  could  have  induced  the  Indians  to  settle  and  remain  in  a  region 
where  they  had  to  forego  the  great  convenience  of  a  natural  water  supply? 
It  was  the  result  of  being  driven  back  from  other  points.  The  ruins  on  the 
Madano  were  all  provided  with  artificial  reservoirs.  This  was  not  a  device 
peculiar  to  Quivira,  but  one  that  was  generally  adopted  by  the  Pueblo  In 
dians  of  that  region.  All  over  this  arid  region  the  villages  relied  upon  such 
contrivances  t.s  they  do  to-day  at  Acoma.  Every  pueblo  on  the  Madano 
stands  so  as  to  be  easily  defended  and  to  afford  excellent  lookouts. 

They  are  all  specimens  of  that  peculiar  kind  of  Indian  defensive  posi- 


214  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

tions  in  which  the  absence  of  obstacles  to  a  wide  range  of  view  becomes  a 
main  element  of  security.  The  roving  Indian  seldom  could  have  taken  a 
pueblo  by  surprise,  still'less  by  direct  assault  against  both  the  villages  on 
the  Medano.  The  villages  were  almost  impregnable.  Against  persistent 
attacks  on  a  small  scale  the  sedentary  Indian  could  not  long  hold  out. 

The  same  kind  of  fortressses  is  common  in  the  region  around 
Zum,  though  the  most  of  them  are  in  ruins.  There  are  two 
pueblos  on  the  summit  ot  "Inscription  Rock."  The  Zunis  claim 
that  they  were  their  villages  but  were  abandoned  previous  to  the 
appearance  of  the  Spaniards. 

General  Simpson  has  furnished  a  plan  and  description  of  one 
ot  these  ruins.  He  says  : 

These  ruins  presented  in  plan  a  rectangle  of  206  by  307  feet,  the  sides 
corresponding  to  the  four  cardinal  points.  The  apartments  seem  to  have 
been  chiefly  upon  the  contour  of  the  rectangle,  though  the  heaps  of  rubbish 
within  the  court  show  that  there  had  been  here  some  also.  The  style  of  the 
masonry,  though  resembling  that  of  the  pueblos  of  Chaco,  is  far  inferior  in 
beauty  of  its  details. 

About  300  yards  distant,  a  deep  canyon  intervening  on  the  summit  of  the 
same  massive  rock,  upon  which  the  inscriptions  are  found,  we  could  see 
another  ruined  pueblo,  in  plan  and  size  similar  to  that  I  have  just  described. 
The  situation  of  the  ruins  is  a  good  one  for  defense  and  for  observation, 
since  they  are  peiched  on  a  plateau  over  200  feet  in  height,  the  sides  of 
which  are  everywhere  steep  and  absolutely  vertical  on  the  north  and  nearly 
so  on  the  east.* 

There  are  ruins  upon  the  summit  of  Thunder  mountain 
called  To-yo-a-lan-a,  which  rises  900  feet  above  the  plain,  in 
precipitous  crags.  Ascent  is  possible  on  four  trails  only,  the 
most  of  which  are  of  frightful  dizziness.  The  mesa  i-s  four 
miles  long  and  from  one  to  two  miles  wide.  The  top  is  partly 
covered  with  low  woods.  There  is  tillable  soil  and  permanent 
water  in  tanks,  so  that  it  could  furnish  room  and  subsistence 
for  a  moderate  Indian  population.  The  ruins  mark  the  sites 
of  six  small  villages.  They  date  from  the  year  1680  and  1692, 
and  were  erected  during  the  absence  of  the  Spaniards  when  the 
Navajos  threatened  to  destroy  the  tribe.  Sacrificial  caves,  in 
actual  use,  are  quite  numerous,  and  hosts  of  legends  and  folk 
tales  cluster  around  the  towering  table-rock.  The  village, 
which  was  first  seen  by  Coronado  and  which  he  had  to  take  by 
storm,  was  called  "Ahacus"  by  Fray  Marcos,  and  is  now  called 
"Hauicu."  It  is  an  elongated  polygon  on  a  rocky  promontory, 
overlooking  the  plains  that  stretch  out  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Zuni  river  and  about  fifteen  miles  southwest  from  the  present 
Zuni.  The  polygonal  shape  was  a  favorite  one  in  the  Zuni 
villages. 

Mr.  Bandelier  speaks  of  many  ruins  of  this  type: 

It  implies  a  circumvallation  of  polygonal  shape  with  one  or  more  gate 
ways.  The  circumvallation  forms  a  building  with  a  number  of  cells,  the  en 
trances  to  which  were  from  the  inside,  while  the  outer  front  was  prob 
ably  perforated  only  with  loop-holes.  This  polygonal  house  enclosed  an 

*See  Journal  of  Military  Reconnoisance,i85o,  p.  221.    Also  Bandelier's  Final  Report,  Part  II 
p.  29. 


CLIFF  FORTRESSES.  215 

open  space  containing  estufas,  and  sometimes  a  cluster  of  other  buildings, 
so  that  the  whole  consists  of  a  central  group  surrounded  by  a  ring  of  many 
storied  edifices  which  forma  defensive  wall.  The  prevalence  of  the  poly 
gonal  pueblo  in  the  Zuni  country  must  therefore  be  ascribed  to  other  than 
physical  influences,  and  it  seems  as  if  a  protracted  state  of  insecurity  might 
be  the  cause  of  it. 

Mr.  Higgins  also  speaks  of  ruins  on  the  summits  of  isolated 
mesas,  and  illustrates  them  by  two  very  striking  engravings. 

At  several  points  upon  the  rim  of  the  Grand  canyon  the  razed  walls  of 
ancient  stone  dwellings  may  be  seen.  They  are  situated  upon  the  verge  of 
the  precipice, in  one  instance  crowning  an  outstanding  tower  that  is  connect 
ed  with  the  main  wall  by  only 'a  narrow  saddle,  and  protected  on  every 
other  hand  by  the  perpendicular  depths  of  the  canyon.  The  world  does 
not  contain  another  fortress  so  triumphantly  invulnerable  to  primitive  war 
fare,  nor  a  dwelling  place  that  can  equal  it  in  sublimity.  It  would  be  found 
upon  one  of  the  salients  of  Point  Moran. 

Scattered  southward  over  the  plateau  other  ruins  of  similar  character 
have  been  found.  Perfect  specimens  of  pottery  and  other  domestic  uten 
sils  have  been  exhumed. 

The  most  famous  group  and  the  largest  aggregation  is  found  in  Walnut 
canyon,  eight  miles  southeast  from  Flagstaff.*  This  canyon  is  several  hun 
dred  feet  deep  and  some  three  miles  long,  with  steep  terraced  walls  of  lime 
stone.  Along  the  shelving  terraces  under  beetling  projections  of  the  strata, 
are  scores  of  these  quaint  abodes.  The  larger  are  divided  into  four  or  five 
compartments  by  cemented  walls,  many  parts  of  which  are  still  intact.  It 
is  believed  that  these  ancient  people  customarily  dwelt  upon  the  plateau 
above,  retiring  to  their  fortifications  when  attacked  by  an  enemy. 

Inferentially  these  mysterious  people,  like  the  Cliff-dwellers,  were  of 
the  same  stock  as  the  Pueblo  Indians  of  our  day.  How  long  ago  they 
dwelt  here  cannot  be  surmised,  save  roughly,  by  the  appearance  of  extreme 
age  that  characterize  many  of  the  ruins,  and  absence  of  the  strange  native 
traditions  concerning  them.  Their  age  has  been  estimated  at  from  600  to 
Soo  years. 

III.  Another  method  of  defense  was  one  which  consisted  in 
the  erection  of  towers  or  citadels,  some  of  which  were  square, 
others  round.  Mr.  Lummis  has  described  a  "rectangular 
house"  situated  southwest  of  the  Chaco  group,  called  Pueblo 
Alto.  It  measured  some  200  feet  long  from  north  to  south 
and  100  feet  from  east  to  west.  He  says: 

The  walls  on  the  west  side  are  said  to  be  still  thirty,  forty  and  forty-five 
feet  high.  Just  in  the  center  of  this  side  is  the  distinctive  wonder  of  the 
whole  pueblo — a  great  tower,  square  outside,  round  within,  with  portions  of 
its  fifth  story  still  standing.  The  walls  still  hold  the  crumbling  ends  of  the 
beams  to  the  successive  stories,  and  the  loop-holes  in  the  two  lower  stories 
are  plainly  visible.  There  are  at  present  no  traces  of  water  in  the  vicinity, 
but  the  pottery  seems  to  be  of  the  same  kind  as  that  found  in  the  Chaco 
ruins.t 

These  ruins  are  near  the  extinct  volcano  called  San  Mateo, 
or  Mt.  Taylor,  the  summit  of  which  is  11,391  feet  high.  The 
valley  of  the  San  Mateo  is  a  narrow  basin  along  the  wooded 
northern  slopes  of  the  Sierras;  bare  hills  extend  to  the  north  of 

*These  engravings  were  drawn  by  Thomas  Moran,  who,  perhaps,  sacrificed  strict  scientific 
accuracy  to  his  artistic  taste.  They  represent  the  scenery  vividly,  but  the  picture  of  Walnut  can 
yon  differs  somewhat  from  the  photographs  which  have  been  taken. 

fSee  Bandelier's  Final  Report  II. 


216 


PRIMITIVE   ARCHITECTURE. 


it,  and  to  the  east  lies  a  bleak  pass.  The  soil  at  San  Mateo  is 
fertile.  Woods  near  at  hand  and  a  diminutive  creek  furnishes 
the  water  supply.  Mr.  Lummis  speaks  of  the  beauty  of  the 
pottery  and  the  originality  of  decoration.  There  were  bowls  of 
indented  pottery,  one-half  of  the  interior  smooth  and  hand 
somely  painted,  covered  with  combinations  of  well-known  sym 
bols  of  Pueblo  Indian  worship,  Shell  beads,  stone  axes,  nic 
tates  and  arrow  heads  were  numerous. 

In  this  region,  a  few  miles  north  of  McCarthy's,  rises  an 
elliptical  mesa  called  the  ''Mesita  Redonda."  Its  height  is 
113  feet.  The  rock  is  sandstone,  its  top  flat.  It  measures  76 
metres  by  45  metres.  On  the  summit  is  a  structure  consisting 

of  nineteen  regular  rec 
tangular  cells,  built  on 
three  sides  around  what 
may  have  been  a  circu 
lar  watch  tower,  the  di 
ameter  of  which  is  nearly 
30  feet. 

Extensive  ruins  are 
found  below,  also  pottery 
of  the  ancient  red  and 
black  type.  All  appear 
ances  favor  the  presump 
tion  that  the  remains  on 
the  top  of  the  little  butte 
and  the  more  extensive 
ores  at  its  foot  formed 
but  one  settlement.  It 
maybe  that  the  circukr 
edifice  was  a  watch  tower 
or  it  may  have  been  the 
estufa  belonging  to  the 
people  who  occupied  the 
19  cells  built  around  it. 

The  Mesita  afforded  an 
excellent  point  for  obser 
vation  and  a  plar  e  of  ref 
uge  in  case  of  dire  neces 
sity.  Below  there  is  at 
least  one  estufa,  and  also 
a  large  round  depression, 

41  feet  in  diameter,  which  may  have  been  a  tank.  It  was  an 
exceedingly  favorable  spot  for  an  aboriginal  settlement,  for 
there  was  water  near  by  and  wood,  and  the  soil  was  fertile. 

Other  towers  which  were  used  for  lookouts  as  well  as  for 
fortresses  are  numerous.  Mr.  Bandelier  says  of  them : 

The  frequency  of  round  or  circular  structures  have  often  been  noticed 
by  investigators.  The  interior  is  formed  by  a  circular  room  and  around  this 

*This  Tower  has  been  described  by  W.  H.  Holmes.     See  Chapter  VI,  p.  91. 


TOWER    OX    THE    SAN   JUAN.* 


CLIFF    FORTRESSES.  217 

is  built  a  ring  divided  transversely  by  a  number  of  cells.  While  the  ordi 
nary  round-towers  occur  almost' everywhere  over  the  pueblo  area,  this 
more  complex  structure  seems  to  be  a  leature  peculiar  to  the  extreme 
northwest  of  New  Mexico  and  the  adjoining  sections  of  Colorado  and 
Utah.t 

Cliff  houses  and  round-towers  exist  northwest  of  Fort  Wingate.  Two 
story  watch-toweis,  of  stone,  were  discovered  in  the  vicinity  of  Zuni  which 
were  square  instead  of  round.  A  stone  staircase,  built  outside  from  the 
ground,  leading  to  a  small  doorway  in  the  upper  story,  characterized  the 
^'Round-towers.'  Some  of  those  at  Fort  Wingate  had  the  walls  built  in 
steps  and  terraces,  receding  from  below  upwards  like  the  stories  of  pueblo 
houses.  Transverse  beams  supported  the  free  ends  of  a  number  of  poles 
like  spokes  of  a  wheel,  resting  loose  on  the  axle,  the  other  ends  were  im- 
beded  in  the  walls  and  the  poles  supported  the  usual  layers  of  brush  and 
earth,  or  making  circular  balconies.  Such  tower-like  constructions  are  not 
always  to  be  looked  upon  as  strictly  military.  The  square  towers  around 
Zuni  are  built  for  guarding  the  crops  and  not  for  the  use  of  a  small  garrison. 
Nevertheless  every  one  of  the  small  buildings  had  contiguous  to  it  a  circu 
lar  depression  which  the  Xavajos  say  was  a  tank.  One  of  these  had  six 
teen  cells. 

Not  only  were  the  towers  near  the  enclosures  but  within  the 
enclosures  themselves,  and  often  formed  citadels.  This  is  es 
pecially  true  of  pueblos  built  in  a  checker-board  pattern  of  ir 
regularly  alternating  houses  and  courts.  There  are  striking  re 
semblances  between  these  citadels,  which  form  so  prominent  a 
feature  in  the  walled  towns  of  the  far  west,  and  those  which 
are  so  common  in  the  ancient  "walled  towns"  of  oriental  and 
bible  lands.  There  is  also  considerable  likeness  between  the 
structures  upon  the  mesas  and  the  old  "castles"  which  in  feudal 
times  crowned  the  summit  of  the  hills  and  mountains  in  central 
Europe. 

These  pueblos  are  virtually  closed  on  all  sides,  either  by  the  walls  of 
houses  or  by  separate  walls;  they  are  very  defensible,  as  there  are  but  one 
or  two  entrances,  and  these  either  by  a  narrow  passage  between  two  build 
ings  or  a  narrower  one  with  re-entering  angles  between  two  court  walls. 

Each  village  contains  one  or  more  open  spaces  of  large  size,  but  they 
are  irregularly  located,  the  Jtendency  being  to  cut  up  the  whole  plat  into  as 
many  small  squares  as  possible. 

In  addition  to  the  court  yards  connected  with  these  edifices,  there  are 
frequently  enclosed  spaces  on  the  slope,  which  would  not  permit  of  the 
erection  of  buildings.  These  were  probably  garden  beds,  and  were  placed 
near  the  dwellings'as  a  measure  of  precaution  in  time  of  danger.  They 
were  above  the  line  of  irrigation  by  the  arroyas,  but  the  remains  of  acequias 
in  the  bottoms  prove  that  these  were  used  for  cultivation.  They  were  with 
out  defense. 

The  type  of  village  which  includes  a  larger  and  more  substantial  struc 
ture  grows  more  conspicuous  as  we  ascend  the  course  of  Tonto  creek;  the 
checker-board-village-tvpe  is  quite  plain.  A  fine  specimen  of  the  kind  is 
noticed  at  San  Carlos,  Wheat  Fields,  and  Armours.  A  quadrangular  wall 
%l/2  feet  thick  surrounds  the  central  mound  and  the  space  thus  enclosed  is 
connected  with  the  main  ktructure  by  walls  of  stone  dividing  it  into  squares 
and  rectangles.  It  is  still  the  checker-board-type;  but  the  dwellings  have 
mostly  been  consolidated  into  one  central  mass,  from  which  enclosures 
diverge  towards  the  circumvallation.  Every  village  contained  a  larger  and 
higher  eminence,  sometimes  in  the  center  and  sometimes  at  the  side. 

There  are  indications  in  some   places  that  the   house  was 


fS«e 
and  House 


Holmes  report  in  Hayden's  Survey  in   1876,  p.  388,  and  plates;  also  Morgan's  "Houses 
»e  Life,"  p.  191;  also  the  chapter  on^'High  Houses  and  Ruined  Towers." 


218  PRIMITIVE   ARCHITECTURE, 

erected  on  an  artificial  platform,  but  the  central  building  can 
not  compare  with  the  communal  house.  The  ruins  around 
Fort  McDowell  and  Fort  Reno  are  of  this  type.  Remains  of 
irrigating  ditches  are  quite  common — some  of  them  as  long  as 
twenty  miles.  The  width  of  the  acequia  is  about  two  feet,  and 
the  depth  about  two  feet.  In  addition  to  these  canals,  artific 
ial  tanks  begin  to  appear.  They  are  elliptical  and  the  rim  is 
formed  of  stones,  or  by  an  embankment  of  earth  of  consider 
able  thickness.  They  run  mostly  parallel  to  the  streams,  but 
transverse  acequias  have  also  been  discovered.  I  always  found 
the  tanks  in  the  vicinity  of  ruins,  and  more  or  less  distinctly 
connected  with  ancient  canals. 

Mr.  Gushing  says  of  these  canals  in  the  Salado  and  Gila 
valleys: 

They  were  found  varying  in  length  from  ten  to  eighty  miles,  and  in 
width  from  ten  to  eighty  feet.  Each  canal,  whether  large  or  small,  was 
found  on  excavation  to  have  been  terraced,  that  is  the  banks  of  dirt  thrown 
out  had  formed  a  greater  canal  containing  a  lesser,  which  in  turn  contained 
another.  They  were  so  filled  up  and  leveled  in  the  course  of  centuries,  that 
they  were  scarcely  traceable. 

Among  the  Pueblo  Indians  such  works  are  communal  enter 
prises  carried  on  by  all  the  men  of  the  village,  and  performed 
at  stated  times.  The  villages  situated  on  the  same  irrigating 
ditch  used  the  same  acequia  and  were  contiguous,  yet  they 
were  independent  of  each  other  for  a  long  time.  There  was 
no  evidence  of  a  confederacy. 

In  connection  with  this  class  of  fortresses,  the  Great  Houses 
on  the  Gila,  and  Salado  and  Sonora,  are  to  be  mentioned  again. 
Father  Ribas,  the  historiographer  of  Sonora,  says  that  the  vil 
lages  consisted  of  solid  houses  made  of  large  adobes,  and  that 
each  village  had,  beside  a  large  edifice,  stronger,  and  provided 
with  loop-holes,  which  served  in  case  of  attack,  as  a  refuge  or 
citadel.  Such  a  place  of  retreat,  the  Casa  Grande  and  analog 
ous  constructions  in  Arizona,  seem  to  have  been.  The  strength 
of  the  walls,  the  openings  in  them,  their  cummanding  position 
and  height,  favor  the  suggestion. 

A  wall  of  circumvallation  to  these  villages  shows  that  the 
enclosure  and  central  area  was  a  fortress. 

Mr.  Gushing  claims  that  the  central  building  was  a  temple. 
He  speaks  also  of  "pyral  mounds"  where  had  been  buried  a 
certain  class  of  the  dead  of  these  cities,  together  with  their 
numerous  funeral  sacrifices.  Usually  at  the  southern  and  west 
ern  bases  of  these  mounds  were  found  great  cemeteries  con 
taining  from  twenty  to  two,  three,  and  even  four  hundred 
incinerary  urns. 

The  same  excavation  which  revealed  these  features  of  a  pyral  mound 
also  revealed  the  contiguous  enclosing  wall  of  what  proved  to  be  typical, 
very  extensive,  many-roomed  dwellings.  Not  only  from  the  discovery  of 
totemic  devices  and  forms  of  pottery,  of  which  each  one  of  these  great 
blocks  of  dwellings  contained  always  a  distinguishing  few,  but  also  from 
the  fact  that  each  had  outside  of  its  enclosing  wall,  its  own  pyral  mound,  its 


CLIFF   FORTRESSES.  219 

great  underground  communal  oven,  and  its  still  greater  reservoir,  fed  by  a 
special  branch  of  the  larger  city  viaducts  or  canals,  it  was  inferable  that 
each  was  the  abiding  place  of  a  particular  clan  or  gens. 

First  in  the  temples,  in  what  remained  of  the  second  and  third  stories, 
afterwards  in  the  enclosed  communal  buildings,  we  found  sepulchres. 
Those  in  the  temples  were  built  of  adobe,  shaped  like  sarcophagi.  These 
in  turn  had  been  carefully  walled  in  and  plastered  over,  in  order  that  the 
living  rooms  that  contained  them  might  still  be  occupied. 

The  best  specimens  of  a  Cliff  Fortress  is  the  one  which  is 
called  Montezuma  Castle.  It  was  first  discovered  by  Dr.  W. 
F.  Hoffman  in  1876,  but  afterward  was  visited  and  described 
by  Dr.  E.  A.  Means. 

It  contained  all  the  elements  of  a  permanent  "home  village" 
or  pueblo,  and  of  a  cliff  fortress.  Its  position  is  almost  inac 
cessible,  but  its  manner  of  construction,  especially  the  arrange 
ment  for  reaching  the  upper  stories,  gave  it  unparalleled 
security.  Its  upper  stories  were  furnished  with  battlements, 
showing  that  it  was  intended  to  be  a  fortress,  and  the  details 
of  its  construction  illustrate  the  skill  and  sagacity  with  which 
the  Cliff-dwellers  erected  their  fortresses.* 

Mr.  Hoffman  calls  it  an  imposing  "cliff  fortress."  The  fol 
lowing  are  his  words: 

I  say  -'fortress"  from  the  fact  that  all  the  cliff-dwellings  from  this 
localilty  upward,  along  the  stream  to  Montezuma  wells,  contain  but  a  single 
room,  the  dimensions  of  which  vary  from  four  to  eight  feet  square, and  from 
three  to  five  feet  high,  and  appear  like  swallow  nests  instead  of  habitations. 
The  fortress  is  about  35  feet  in  height,  each  story  receding  several  feet. 
The  horizontal  length  of  the  front  wall  is  about  50  feet,  the  walls  being 
built  nearly  out  to  the  face  of  the  escarpment.  There  is  a  square  tower  in 
the  middle  front  of  the  lower  wall,  through  which  I  found  the  only  means  of 
access.! 

The  roof  of  the  second  story  forms  a  floor  for  a  sort  of  parapet  4  feet 
high.  Through  this  are  several  port-holes  3  or  4  inches  square,  on  the  in 
ner  side  and  over  a  foot  on  the  outer  side,  through  which  arrows  could  have 
been  very  easily  fired.  Back  of  the  parapet  is  a  small  opening  leading  into 
the  rocks,  which  appears  as  if  it  might  have  been  used  as  a  store-room  for 
food. 

The  door  or  opening,  partially  visible  in  the  upper  postern  wall,  is  the 
one  leading  to  the  supposed  hearth  and  store-room.  Two  rafters  protrude 
from  the  middle  of  the  wall,  which  evidently  served  as  a  partial  hold,  or 
support.  The  lintels  over  the  doorways  are  generally  of  cedar,  and  are  in 
as  substantial  a  condition  as  when  first  placed  there.  The  stones  compos 
ing  the  wall  are  neatly  and  closely  laid  and  fitted,  and  actually  cemented 
together  with  mortar.  The  place  has  become  more  accessible  by  the 
breaking  away  of  the  rocks  than  it  was  when  regularly  occupied,  when  rope 
ladders  were  probably  in  use. 

The  description  by  Dr.  Means  corresponds  to  that  given  by 
Dr.  Hoffman,  but  furnishes  some  additional  facts.  It  is  as 
followsif 

Of  the  cliff  fortresses,  as  distinguished  from  the  pueblos,  many  excel- 

*See  Hayden's  Report  for  1876,  p.  477. 

|Mr.  Holmes  speaks  of  towers  on  the  San  Juan,  which  furnisned  the  means  of  access  to  the 
cliff-dwellings. 

}"CliflF-Dwellings  on  the  Rio  Verde,"  by  Edgar  A.  Means,  surgeon  U.S.A.  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  1890,  p.  744. 


220  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE 

lent  examples  are  found  in  the  verde  region.     One,  in  which  I  was  the  firs 
white  man  to  set  foot,  is  built  on  the  right  wall  of  a  deep  canyon,  between 
Hackberry  Flat  and  the  Rio  Verde.     The  building  known  as  "Montezuma 
Castle,"  on  the  right  bank  of  Beaver  creek,  in  sight  of  and  three  miles 
from  Fort  Verde,  is  the  finest  and  is  typical  of  its  class. 

This  castle,  doubtless  a  "fortress,"  is  fitted  into  a  natural  depression, 
high  up  in  a  vertical  limestone  cliff,  the  base  of  which  is  340  feet  from  the 
edge  of  the  stream  and  about  40  feet  above  it.  The  casa,  or  fortress,  is 
accessible  only  by  means  of  ladders,  its  lowest  foundation  being  40  feet 
from  the  bottom  of  the  cliff.  After  ascending  three  of  these,  a  ledge  is 
reached,  upon  which  six  cave-rooms  open.  On  a  ledge  below  this^one, 
and  80  feet  to  the  northeast,  are  two  cave-dwellings  neatly  walled  up  in 
front,  with  a  well-made  window  in  each  for  entrance.  One  or  two  isolated 
chambers,  walled  in  front  and  windowed,  may  be  seen  in  the  side  of  the 
cliff,  where  they  are  altogether  inaccessible.  These  together  constituted 
the  settlement,  or  home  village. 

Ascending  a  fourth  ladder,  the  "fortress"  is  reached.  The  foundation 
rests  upon  cedar  timbers,  laid  longitudinally  upon  flat  stones  on  the  ledge. 
The  projecting  ends  of  these  timbers  show  plainly  the  marks  of  stone  axes, 
used  in  cutting  them.  The  front  wall  is  a  little  over  two  feet  thick  at  the 
bottom  and  13  inches  at  the  top.  i  he  timbers  are  so  placed  that  at  the 
middle  they  project  over  the  edge  of  the  ledge.  The  fortress  is  entered  at 
a  projecting  angle,  through  a  window  of  sub-gothic  form,  measuring  3  feet 
3  inches  in  height  and  2  feet  4  inches  wide  at  the  bottom.  The  apartment 
is  smoothly  plastered  within.  The  plastering  shows  the  marks  of  the 
thumb  and  fingers  and  hand. 

Thejoof  is  formed  by  willows  laid  horizontally  across  eleven 'rafters  of 
ash  and  black  alder;  upon  this  a  thick  layer  of  reeds  placed  transversely, 
the  whole  plastered  on  top  with  mortar,  forming  the  floor  to  the  chamber 
above.  The  only  means  of  entering  the  seventeen  apartments  above  this 
room  is  a  small  hole  in  the  ceiling,  just  within  the  entrance,  measuriug  13 
by  18  inches,  bordered  by  flat  stones  laid  upon  the  reed  layer  of  the  roof. 
These  stones  are  worn  smooth  by  the  hands  of  the  Cliff-dwellers,  in  pass 
ing  two  and  fro.  There  is  a  store-room  separate  from  the  one  just  described, 
on  the  first  floor.  It  can  only  be  entered  through  a  small  scuttle  in  the 
room  over  it.  The  upper,  third  and  fourth  stories  are  further  back  than  the 
fiist,  after  the  pueblo  style.  The  outer  wall  is  built  on  a  ledge  in  the  rear 
of  the  second  floor.  The  second  story  is  much  more  spacious  than  the  first, 
as  the  roof  of  the  latter  brings  the  building  to  the  level  of  the  ledge,  which 
extends  laterally  in  each  direction  and  serves  as  a  floor  for  additional 
rooms.  This  story  is  composed  of  a  tier  of  four  rooms,  bounded  behind  by 
a  massive  wall  of  masonry  which  rests  on  a  ledge  with  the  floor.  This  ar 
rangement,  besides  giving  more  room  to  the  stories  above,  secures  the 
greatest  amount  of  stability  to  the  wall,  which  is  most  important  to  the 
structure.  It  is  28  feet  in  height,  rises  to  the  fifth  story,  around  the  front 
of  which  it  forms  a  battlement  \l/2  feet  high,  fortress  like.  It  is  slightly 
curved  inward.* 

The  third  floor  comprises  the  most  extensive  tier  of  rooms  in  the  struct 
ure,  as  it  extends  across  the  entire  alcove  of  the  cliff  in  which  the  Casa  is 
built.  The  balcony  above  the  second  story  has  a  battlement  about  it,  sup 
ported  by  the  wall  of  the  room.  The  apartments  of  the  fourth  floor  are 
rather  neater  in  construction  than  the  rooms  below.  The  doorways  are 
neatly  executed,  each  having  four  good-sized  lintel  pieces, 

The  fifth  story  can  only  be  reached  by  climbing  through  a  small  hole 
in  the  ceiling  of  the  room  below.  This,  the  uppermost  story,  consists  of  a 
long  porch,  or  gallery,  having  a  battlement  in  front  and  an  elevated  back 
ward  extension  on  the  tight.  The  two  rooms  on  this  floor  are  roofed  by 
the  cliff,  and  are  loftier  than  the  lower  chambers  . 


•     i_*The  m-ost  of  the  walls  wl"ch  iorm  the  fortress  in  the  cave  villages  are  curved  outwards    Such 
is  the  case  in  Monarch's  Cave  and  elsewhere. 


222 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


storied  houses,  that  their  domestic  life  and  social  status  and 
time-honored  religious  customs  have  been  studied  so  carefully. 
There  are,  to  be  sure,  but  few  pueblos  now  standing.  Out  of 
the  great  number  which  once  covered  the  region  with  a  teem 
ing  population,  and  which  made  the  river  valleys  and  the  lofty 
mesas  a  scene  of  life,  there  can  be  found  only  here  and  there 
a  "  great  house"  which  contained  the  fragments  of  the  various 
tribes  which  were  gathered  into  them,  and  even  these  pueblos 
were  nearly  all  built  at  a  modern  date  ;  scarcely  one  of  them  is 
on  the  same  site,  or  has  the  same  wall  and  rooms  which  were 
seen  by  the  Spaniards;  some  of  the  pueblos  have  changed 
many  times;  in  fact  the  only  village  which  remains  the  same 
is  that  one  on  Acoma.  Still  we  may  say  that  notwithstanding 
the  ruin  that  has  come  upon  the  "  Great  Houses  "  all  over  this 
pueblo  territory,  enough  of  the  ancient  style  of  building  and 
ancient  customs  of  the  people  remain  for  us  to  draw  a  picture 


-^^ 


A  TYPICAL   GREAT  HOUSE  AT  ZUNI. 

of  society  as  it  was  in  pre-Columbian  times,  and  to  describe 
with  considerable  accuracy  the  domestic  and  social  life  which 
prevail.  We  shall  take  the  Great  Houses  for  our  study,  and 
endeavor  to  show  what  the  domestic  life  was. 

I.  The  chief  peculiarity  which  may  be  recognized  in  the 
Great  Houses  is  that  they  were  used  as  fortresses  as  well  as  vil 
lage  sites,  or  pueblos.  This  peculiarity  has  been  spoken  of  by  the 
early  explorers,  and  was  formerly  made  prominent.  But  later 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


223 


explorers  have  so  often  ignored  the  defensive  element,  and 
represented  even  the  fortresses  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  as  only 
temporary  resorts,  that  it  is  important  to  bring  this  feature 
forward  again  and  make  it  prominent.  They  were,  indeed, 
fortresses  or  castles  which  were  permanently  occupied,  and 
contained  all  the  population  that  there  was,  for  it  was  not  pos 
sible  for  families  to  live  separately  in  such  a  country.  Even  if 
there  were  no  dangers  threatening  from  the  incursions  of  the 
wild  tribes  from  a  distance,  or  from  the  attacks  of  neighboring 
tribes,  it  would  have  been  very  difficult  for  them  to  have  gained 
subsistence  from  such  an  arid  climate.  It  was  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  people  should  gather  into  great  houses  and 
join  together  in  cultivating  the  soil,  as  well  as  protecting  them 
selves  from  their  enemies. 

Moreover,  there  was  a  sense  of  loneliness  in  the  midst  of 
this  mountain  scenery  which  would  naturally  drive  the  people 
to  the  villages.  While  the  views  are  inspiring  and  full  of  grand 
eur,  it  is  the  testimony  of  all  who  have  visited  the  region  that  one 


A  TYPICAL  SOLITARY  HOUSE. 


needs  to  grew  to  it  in  order  to  apprehend  and  realize  what  mag 
nificent  distances  there  are,  and  how  much  sublimity  is  con 
tained  in  them.  The  country  differs  from  most  mountain  re 
gions,  for  there  is  a  great  lack  of  vegetation,  and  there  is  a 
strange  glare  to  the  sun,  and  a  dreamy  haze  settles  down  on 
the  prospect  everywhere.  We  may  conclude  then  that  the 
"great  houses"  were  the  products  of  the  country,  and  the  results 
of  environment.  Still,  they  remind  us  of  the  great  castles  of 


224  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Europe,  for  they  were  often  situated  upon  lofty  mesas  at  inac 
cessible  heights,  their  walls  blending  with  the  rocks,  making 
them  seem  like  great  fortresses.  They  also  remind  us  of  the 
walled  towns,  which  according  to  the  scriptures  were  scat 
tered  over  the  hill  country  of  Judea,  and  marked  the  border 
line  of  that  and  the  wilderness. 

Society  was  in  a  far  lower  state  than  that  which  appeared 
during  the  historic  age,  yet  the  same  elements  of  the  clan  life 
and  the  village  estate,  which  have  engaged  the  attention  of  so 
many,  were  contained  in  these  pueblos,  or  Great  Houses,  and 
they  therefore  are  interesting  objects  of  study. 

They  remind  us  of  the  remains  of  mediaeval  Europe.  There 
were  no  lords,  nor  counts,  nor  earls,  living  in  castles  with  their 
retainers — nor  were  there  any  tournaments,  or  romances  such 
as  we  read  about  in  Walter  Scott's  works.  There  were  no 
horses  caparisoned,  and  no  coats  of  mail. 

Still,  if  there  are  any  buildings  in  America  that  can  be  com 
pared  to  the  ancient  castles  of  Scotland,  Ireland,  Normandy, 
and  the  river  Rhine,  they  are  to  be  found  in  these  so-called 
great  houses.  The  comparison  becomes  more  striking,  how 
ever,  if  we  go  back  farther  in  history  and  take  the  state  of  so 
ciety  which  prevailed  when  Joshua,  the  great  leader,  took 
possession  of  the  Holy  Land.  The  people  dwelt  in  "walled 
towns,"  yet  they  were  organized  into  clans  and  tribes  which 
were  separate,  and  Joshua  with  his  more  thoroughly  organized 
army  was  able  to  overcome  the  people. 

There  is  another  line  of  comparison.  Many  nations  and 
tribes  have  been  driven  from  their  homes  in  the  valleys,  and 
have  been  compelled  to  resort  to  the  hilltops,  and  mountains, 
and  have  there  erected  citadels  and  forts  for  defense.  Such 
seems  to  have  been  the  case  all  over  the  plateau,  even  in  the 
region  that  extended  into  the  southwest  as  far  as  Chihuahua 
in  Mexico  ;  for  here  there  were  fortresses  which  were  separated 
from  the  other  houses  and  which  had  resemblances  to  the 
castles  or  citadels  of  the  East. 

II.  We  shall  take  up  the  description  of  these  villages  with 
their  Great  Houses,  or  Casas  Grandes,  before  we  proceed  with 
that  of  the  Pueblos,  or  Great  Houses  proper.  These  make  a 
class  of  villages  and  fortresses  quite  unlike  the  Great  Houses 
concerning  which  we  are  speaking. 

The  description  of  these  has  been  given  by  various  writers, 
and  we  shall  quote  from  them  in  order  to  show  the  difference 
between  the  two  classes  of  structures.  These  have  gone  by 
the  name  of  Casas  Grandes,  which  signifies  Great  Houses,  but 
they  were  more  properly  straggling  villages,  with  a  Great 
House,  or  castle,  in  the  midst,  or  one  side  of  the  village.  The 
houses  of  which  the  village  was  composed  were  often  scat 
tered  along  side  of  a  stream  or  irrigating  canal.  We  will  begin 
with  the  ruins  which  the  Spanish  came  upon  in  Sonora,  but 
would  say  that  these  resembled  the  ruined  villages  which  were 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


225 


226 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES.  227 

situated  upon  the  Gila,  and  in  some  respects  those  in  the  valley 
of  the  Tempe  in  Arizona.  The  characteristics  of  these  ruined 
villages  were  as  follows  : 

1.  They  were  made  up  of  a  series  of    mounds,  or  ruins, 
which  marked  the  sites  of  nouses,  which  instead  of  being  close 
together  and  compact,  as  were  the   pueblos,  were   scattered 
over  a  wide  area. 

2.  The  villages  were  sometimes  surrounded  by  a  wall,  and 
so  they  might  well  be  called   "wall  towns."      In   Sonora  the 
villages  were  upon  the  high  lands,  but  in  Arizona  they  were 
situated  on  the  low  lands.     In  Sonora  the  houses  were  built  of 
adobe  as  the  material  was  convenient.     In  Arizona  they  were 
built  of  adobe  and  sometimes  of  wattle  work,  but  the  houses 
were  separate.     No  such  structure  as  the  honey-comb,  com 
munistic  houses  called  pueblos  are  to  be  found  in  this  region. 

3.  There  was  always  in  the  center  or  at   one   side  of  the 
village,  an    imposing   group   of  ruins,  to    which    the    name  of 
Casa  Grande  was  given.     This  group  wis  supposed  to  be  the 
castle  or  fortress,  and  was  evidently  designed  as  a  place  of  re 
treat  in  case  the  village  was  attacked. 

4.  There  was  a  marked  difference  in  the   architecture  and 
the  art  of  the  two  regions,  showing   that  the    people    in   this 
southwest  province  had  reached   a  stage  of  advancement  sev 
eral  grades  higher  than  that  which  was  known  to  either  the 
Cliff-Dwellers  or  the  Pueblos. 

5.  The  citadels,  or  Great  Houses,  called  Casas  Grandes, 
were  actually  castles,  and  marked  that  stage  where  a  fortress 
was  entirely  separate  from  the  abodes  or  ordinary  houses,  indi 
cating  that  a  military  class  as  well   as  a  religious  class  had  risen 
even  when  the  clan  life  had  remained  the  same. 

6.  There  was  near  these  ruined  houses  and  castles,  or  cita 
dels,  a  certain  amount  of  cultivatable  land  which  was  irrigated 
by  the  arroyas,  or  canals,  showing  that  they  were   agricultural 
people  who  dwelt  in  the  villages. 

•  7.  The  Great  Houses  were  not  always  in  the  centre  of  the 
village,  nor  were  they  always  on  the  low  land,  for  there  was  a 
variety  in  their  location.  Still,  so  far  as  they  have  become 
known  the  villages  are  all  characterized  by  the  presence  of 
some  such  imposing  structure.  In  this  we  see  the  difference 
between  the  two  classes,  a  difference  which  nearly  all  writers 
upon  the  subject  have  spoken  of.  Mr.  Bandelier  has  spoken 
of  the  difference  between  the  two  classes  of  structures  in  the 
following  language  : 

Although  the  communal  Pueblo  houses  of  the  North  seem  to  be  dif 
ferent  from  the  structures  on  the  Gila  and  at  Casas  Grandes,  they  still 
show  the  same  leading  characteristics  of  being  intended  for  abodes,  and  at 
the  same  time  for  defense.  In  the  northern  villages, generally,  both  fea 
tures  are  intimately  connected,  whereas  further  south  ihe  military  purpose 
is  represented  by  a  separate  edifice,  the  central  house  or  stronghold,  of 
which  Casa  Grande  is  a  good  specimen.  In  this,  the  ancient  village  of  the 
Southwest  approaches  the  ancient  settlement  of  Yucatan  and  of  Central 
America,  which  consisted  of  at  least  three  different  kinds  of  edifices,  each 


228  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

distinct  from  the  others  in  the  purpose  to  which  it  was  destined.  It  seems, 
therefore,  that  between  the  thirty-fourth  anci  the  twenty-fourth  parallels  of 
latitude  the  aboriginal  architecture  of  the  Southwest  had  begun  to  change 
in  a  manner  that  brought  some  of  ihe  elements  that  were  of  northern  origin 
into  disuse,  and  substituted  others  derived  from  southern  influences  ;  in 
other  words  that  there  was  a  gradual  transformation  going  on  in  ancient 
aboriginal  architecture  in  the  direction  from  north  to  south.  At  Casas 
Grandes  a  marked  advance  over  any  portion  of  the  southwest  was  shown, 
particularly  in  certain  household  utensils,  in  the  possible  existence  of  stair 
ways  in  the  interior  of  houses,  and  in  the  method  of  construction  of  irri 
gating  ditches.  Neveitheless  the  strides  made  were  not  important  enough 
to  raise  the  people  to  the  level  of  more  southern  tribes.  Their  plastic  ait 
as  far  as  displayed  in  the  few  idols  and  fetiches  remains  behind  that  of  the 
Nahuas,  or  Mayas.  They  seemed  to  have  reached  an  intermediate  st;;ge 
between  them  and  the  Pueblo?,  though  nearer  to  the  latter  than  the  former. 
Large  halls  are  not  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  north.  They  appear  to  be 
almost  the  rule  at  M  itla  and  in  Yucatan,  and  they  are  met  with  on  the  Gila 
under  a  climate  wh'.ch  is  semi-tropical.  The  usual  supposition  is  that  Casas 
Grandes  was  the  "  capital '  of  a  certain  range  or  district,  and  that  the 
small  ruins  were  those  of  minor  villages.  It  is  my  impression  that  several 
tribes,  probably  one  of  the  same  stock  occupied  the  country  in  separate 
and  autonomous  groups,  and  that  Casas  Grandes  is  probably  the  past  refuse 
of  one  of  these  tr.bes.  The  site  is  well  selected  and  commanding  an  ex 
tensive  view.  The  cuhivatable  land  commences  at  the  foot  of  the  terrace 
which  is  only  a  few  feet  above  it.  No  enemy  could  approach  Casas  Granc.es 
in  the  daytime  without  being  d;scovered.  The  question  of  the  form  of 
these  edifices,  wheiher  they  were  like  the  pueblos  of  the  north,  with  re 
treating  terraces,  or  with  straight  walls  to  the  top,  and  a  cential  towtr  like 
that  of  Casa  Grande  on  the  Gila,  is  a  difficult  one  to  detern  ine.  The  c<  n 
ical  shape  of  the  mounds  would  leal  to  the  inference  that  the  central  parts 
were  higher  than  the  ou!er  ones  ;  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  outer  walls 
still  standing  which  are  three  stories  in  height. 

As  to  the  height,  Mr.  Bandelier  says  : 

Besides  being  quite  extensive  for  southwestern  ruins,  they  are  also 
compact,  so  that  the  population,  if  we  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that 
the  buildings  were  several  stories  high,  may  have  amounted  to  more  thjm 
three  or  four  thousand  sou's.  In  that  case  it  would  have  been  by  far  the 
largest  Indian  pueblo  in  the  southwest — and  twice  as  large  as  the  mcst 
populous  village  known  to  have  existed  farther  north. 

From  a  close  examination  of  what  rem  lins  of  the  building,  or  bu. Id- 
ings,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  outer  portions  were  the  lores',  and 
not  above  one  story  in  height,  while  the  central  ones  were  from  three  to 
six  stories.  Hence  the  large  heaps  of  ruined  walls  and  lubbish  in  the  cen 
tre,  and  in  consequence  the  better  preservation  and  support  of  that  portion 
of  the  edifice.  By  far  the  larger  portions  which  have  fallen  are  the  exterior 
walls.  This  arises  from  the  moisture  of  the  earth  and  the  greater  exposure 
to  rains.  The  central  parts  are  in  a  measure  protected  by  the  accumula 
tion  of  rubbish,  ad  by  the  greater  thickness  of  their  walls. 

In  reference  to  the  resemblance  of  the  ruins  to  fortresses, 
Mr.  Bandelier  says  : 

Comparing  the  architecture  of  Casas  Grandes  with  that  of  the  Gila.it 
strikes  me  that  the  settlement  was  more  compactly  built,  and  tnat  the  edi 
fices  present  a  higher  degree  of  skill,  if  not  in  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  constructed,  at  least  that  in  which  they  are  arranged.  These  were 
manifestly  not  for  habitation  alone,  but  also  with  a  view  of  defense.  There 
are,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  no  fortifications  proper,  but  the  size  and  situa 
tion  of  the  buildings,  their  number,  and  the  strength  of  the  walls,  were  a 
means  of  protection  against  an  Indian  foe.  The  buildings  were  really 
fortresses  as  well  [as  houses.  Where  a  cluster  is  as  large  as  Casas  Grandes 
it  is  probable  that  the  downfall  was  gradual,  and  probably  brought  about  bv 
various  causes. 

Papers  iv,  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America  (Americao  series)  p.  552. 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


229 


Mr.  Gushing  has  recognized  the  same  distinction  between 
the  northern  and  southern  tribes  by  means  of  their  traditions 
as  well  as  their  architecture  and  art.  He  says  there  are  tradi 
tions  which  sho-.v  that  a  people  from  the  north  mingled  with 
the  peop'.e  of  the  south  and  introduced  two  forms  of  culture 
and  two  sets  of  legends  and  myths.  According  to  these  tra- 


PLAT   OF    RUINS   OF    CASAS   GRANDER. 

ditions  one  branch  of  their  ancestral  people  had  tit  some  re 
mote  time  descended  from  the  north  and  had  there  become  the 
aborigines,  while  another  branch  was  intrusive  from  the  west,  or 
southwest,  but  had  formerly  occupied  the  country  in  the  lower 
Colorado.  This  evidence  was  also  confirmed  by  the  customs 
of  the  people. 

Mr.  Bancroft  describes  the  location  of  Casas  Grandes  in 
Sonora  as  follows  : 

These  ruins  are  situated  on  the  Casas  Grandes  River— which  flowing 
northward  empties  into  a  lake  near  the  United  States  b  >undary  one  hun- 
died  and  fifty  miles  northwest  of  Chihuahua.  Thev  are  frequently  men 
tioned  by  the  early  writers  as  a  probable  station  of  the  migrating  Aztecs, 

See  Bancroft's"  Native  Races,"  vol.  4,  p;  606. 

The  cuts  on  this  and  the  opposite  pages  represent  views  of  the  ruins  from  the  different  stand' 
points,  as  sketched  by  Mr.  Bartlett. 


230 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


but  these  early  accounts  are  more  than  usually  inaccurate  in  this  case. 

The  ruined  casas  are  about  half  a  mile  from  the  modern  Mexican  town 
of  the  same  name,  located  in  a  finely  chosen  site,  commanding  a  broad 
view  over  the  fertile  valley  of  the  Casas  Grandes  or  San  Miguel  river, 
which  valley— or  at  least  the  river  bottom— is  here  two  miles  wide.  This 
bottom  is  bounded  by  a  plateau  about  twenty  five  feet  higher,  and  the  ruins 
are  found  partly  on  the  bottom  and  partly  on  the  more  sterile  plateau 
above.  They  consist  of  walls  generally  fallen  and  crumbled  into  heaps  of 
rubbish,  but  at  some  points,  as  at  the  corners  and  where  supported  by  par 
tition  walls,  still  standing  to  a  height  of  from  five  to  thirty  feet  above  the 
heaps  of  debris,  and  some  of  them  as  high  as  fifty  feet,  if  reckoned  from 
the  level  of  the  ground. 

These  villages  extend  over  a  large  area,  and  the  central 
building,  or  castle,  commands  an  extensive  outlook  ;  that  of 

Casas  Grande,  of 
Arizona,  covers  about 
sixty-five  acres,  and 
the  view  gained  from 
the  Casas  Grande  is 
for  miles  in  every  di 
rection.  Bandelier 
says:  "In  the  whole 
south  west  where 
there  are  thousands 
of  ruins,  many  of 
which  represent  vil 
lages  located  with  ref 
erence  to  outlook, 
there  are  few  if  any 
so  well  situated  as 
this.  There  are  irri 
gating  ditches  near 
all  these  villages." 
Bandelier  says  of  the 
ditch  near  the  Casas 
Grandes  in  Sonora  : 

"The  main  irrigating  ditch  enters  the  ancient  village  from  the 
northwest,  and  can  be  'raced  for  a  distance  of  two  or  three 
miles.  It  takes  its  origin  near  a  copious  spring,  and  looks  as 
if  it  had  conducted  the  waters  of  the  spring  to  the  settlement 
for  household  purposes  only.  It  empties  into  a  circular  tank 
49  feet  in  diameter  and  5  feet  deep,  and  seems  to  have  also 
passed  through  this,  and  supplied  a  larger  tank  72  feet  in  diam 
eter  and  7  feet  deep.  Another  acequia  14  feet  wide  looks 
more  like  a  road-bed  than  a  ditch,  but  it  is  slightiy  raised 
above  the  ground  and  shows  four  longitudinal  rows  of  stones 
laid  at  intervals  from  4  to  6  feet  apart.  There  are  ruins  and 
mounds  scattered  in  small  clusters  near  the  various  rivers 
which  suggest  the  former  existence  of  a  number  of  settle 
ments,  composedof  large  many-storied  houses,  similar  to  those 
of  Casas  Grandes.  There  are  dams  and  dykes  ;  and  between 
the  dykes  plots  of  tillable  land,  artificial  garden  beds.  The 


RUINS   OF    CASAS   GRANDES. 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


231 


plains    are    covered    with   grass,  on     which    antelopes   were 
grazing  in  herds." 

We  here  have  a  picture  of  village  life  which  differs  entirely 
from  that  of  the  Pueblos  of  the  plateau,  and  still  more  from 
that  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  of  San  Juan  ;  thus  making  three  classes 
of  settlements,  in  two  of  which  there  are  what  are  called  "Great 
Houses,"  though  these  serve  very  different  purposes.  On  the 
plateau  they  contain  the  whole  village  and  so  are  called  Pueblos. 
Farther  south  thtyare  isolated  and  form  only  a  part  of  a  village, 


•^^aBBr? 

*g^i^?w^ 

— ~--^/^r 


FORTIFIED  PUEBLO  WITH  OUTER  WALL  AND  INTERIOR  COURT. 

and  serve  as  a  fortress,  or  outlook  and  final  place  of  retreat. 

III.  The  defensive  elements  which  were  embodied  in  these 
Great  Houses  are  to  be  considered  here.  They  consisted  of 
the  following  features  : 

1.  The  Great  House  was  erected  in  such  a  manner  that  it  be 
came  the  abode  of  a  number  of  clans  which  were  governed  by 
a  chief  with  his  subordinates,  and  a  fortress  which  was  defend 
ed  by  the  people  who  were  gathered  en  masse,  and  so  consti 
tuted  a  fortified  village,  as  well  as  a  Great  House. 

2.  The  arrangement  of  the   terraces  and  the  apartments 
was  such  that  a  dead  wall  was  always  presented  to  the  face  of 
an  approaching  foe,  and  must  be  scaled  in  the  presence  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the   entire  village,  who  might  easily  gather  on 
the  first  terrace  for  the  defense  of  their  homes.     Thus  a  Great 
House  was  a   fortress  which  was  constantly  occupied.     Every 
part  of  it  was  arranged  for  the  security  of  the  people. 

3.  There  were  ladders  which  furnished  access  to  the  first 
terrace,  and  were  easily  ascended  by   men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,   and  were  drawn  up  by  night,  and  so  the  house  was  se 
cured  from  prowling  foes. 

4.  The  stores  or  provisions  for  the  sustenance  of  the  peo 
ple  were  placed  below  the  first  terrace,  in  rooms  which  were 


232  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

dark  and  difficult  of  access,  as  they  were  reached  by  trap 
doors  and  rope  ladders,  which  led  into  the  domestic  apart 
ments  ;  but  the  people  would  need  to  be  driven  away  before 
the  provisions  could  be  reached. 

5.     Nearly  all  the   Pueblos  had  a  reservoir  of  water  in  the 

court.     This  was  sometimes  fed  by  a  spring  and  small  springs 

•vhich  flowed    through    the    village.      It    was  drained,  also,  so 

hat  the  water  could  pass  through  the  gateways  to  other  reser- 

/oirs  below,  and   used    to    irrigate    the  fields    near    by.     This 

enabled  the  people  to  undergo  a  siege  of  considerable  length. 

6.     The  Cacique  or  Governor  lived  in  the  upper  story,  and 

the  houses  were  high  enough  so  that  a  view  could  be  gained  of 

the  surrounding  country.     This  was  the  method  of  defense  of 


w&m-''--'    ; 


VL*-    '-•*£;;  -  -^Vtf 


• 


-^^ 


FORTIFIED  PUEBLO  WITH  DRAINED  COURT  AND  RESERVOIR  OUTSIDF. 

the    Mound-Builders  of  the    south,  but    it  was  more    effective 
among  the  Pueblos. 

7.  There    was    always    a  look-out    near    by    in  the  shape 
of  a  tower  where  sentinels  were  placed.     These  look-outs  com- 
minded  a  view  of  the  surrounding  country  for  many  miles,  as 
they  were  either  on  the  mesas  or  at  points  in  the  valleys  where 
the  view  would  be  extensive  up  and  down  the  canon. 

8.  The  pueblos  were  generally  built  in  groups  at  varying 
distances  from  one  another,  but  always  near  enough  so  that 
signals  could  be  exchanged.     The  people  living  at  the  various 
villages  would  come  to  the    defense  of  the    one   that    was  at 
tacked.     There  were  no  confederacies,  and  no  general  leader 
for  the  entire  tribe,  as  each  pueblo  was  like  a  feudal  castle  ;  yet 
the  tribal  bonds  were  sufficient  to  hold  them  together. 

9.  The   government  was   also    defensive,  but   there  was  a 
religious    class  which    held   the  people  ciosely  to  the  customs 
which  were  inherited  from  their  fathers,  and  thus  always  had  a 
separate   house   for   their   ceremonies.      In   this   respect   the 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


233 


Pueblos  differed  from  the  villages  southwest.  There  were  no 
estufas  in  any  of  the  Casas  Grandes,  or  Great  Houses  on  the 
Gila,  but  in  their  place  there  was  a  central  house  which  was 
used  both  as  a  citadel  and  a  temple.  In  the  pueblos  the  estu 
fas  were  very  prominent,  but  they  were  generally  beneath  the 
surface  and  were  used  merely  as  sacred  chambers,  or  houses 
for  religious  ceremony.  Still  it  is  more  than  likely  that  even 
the  estufas  furnished  defense  for  the  Pueblos,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  the  places  where  the  men  and  boys  were  con 
stantly  assembled  and  from  which  the  real  defenders  would 
emerge  in  the  time  of  clangei,  their  situation  in  front  of  the 
terraces  being  such  that  no  ai  ack  could  be  made  without  at 
tracting  the  attention  of  the  iumates. 

10.     In  nearly  all   the  pueblos  there  were  gateways,  some  of 
which  were  marked  by  solid  abutments  of  stone,  othtrs  were  mi  re 


GATEWAY  TO  THE  COURT  AT  PECOS. 


passage  ways  through  the  walls  over  which  the  apartments  of  the 
upper  stories  were  built.  These  were  in  reality  covered  ways. 
They  are  more  common  in  the  modern  pueblos  than  in  the  an 
cient.  Illustrations  of  the  ruins  at  Pecos  with  the  courts  and 
reservoirs  and  gateways  and  ancient  walls  are  given  in  the  cuts. 

Now  such  were  the  defensi  Te  elements  which  were  embod 
ied  in  the  Pueblos  and  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  dis 
coverers  and  early  explorers.  There  are  many  illustrations 
which  might  be  given,  but  we  shall  only  refer  to  the  descrip 
tions  which  have  been  given  of  the  Pueblos  on  the  Rio  Grande 
and  the  Zuni  by  the  different  explorers.  The  following  is  Mr. 
Morgan's  description  : 

They  show  the  principle  features:  First,  the  terraced  form  of  archi 
tecture,  common  also  in  Mexico,  with  the  housetops  as  the  social  gathering 


234 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


places  of  the  inmates  ;  and  second,  a  ground  story  for  safety.  Every 
house,  therefore,  is  a  fortress.  The  first  story  is  closed  up  solid  for  de 
fensive  reasons,  with  the  exception  of  small  window  openings.  The  de 
fensive  element  so  prominent  in  this  architecture  was  not  so  much  to  pro 
tect  the  village  Indians  from  each  other  as  from  attacks  of  migratory 
bands  coming  down  from  the  north.  The  pueblos  now  in  ruins,  and  for 
some  distance  north  testify  to  the  perpetual  struggle  of  the  loimer  to 
maintain  their  ground  as  well  as  proves  the  insecurity  of  their  condition. 

With  respect  to  the  manner  of  constructing  these  houses,  it  was  proba 
bly  done  from  time  to  time  and  from  generation  to  generation.  Like  a 
feudal  castle,  each  house  was  a  growth  by  additions  from  small  begin 
nings  as  exigencies  required. 

Mr.  Morgan  describes  a  cluster  of  ruined  pueblos  on  the 
Animas  river,  one  of  which  was  five  or  six  stories  high;  "It 
consisted  of  a  main  building,  two  wings,  and  a  fourth  struc 
ture  crossing  from  one  wing  to  another,  enclosing  an  open 
court.  The  mass  of  material  used  in  the  construction  of  the 


MANNER   OF   CONSTRUCTING   PUEBLO    ROOFS. 

edifice  was  very  great.  The  walls  were  surprising.  They  varied 
from  two  feet  four  inches  to  three  feet  six  inches  in  thickness. 
Every  room  in  the  main  building  was  faced  with  stone  on  the 
four  sides;  with  an  adobe  floor  and  a  wooden  ceiling.  The  house 
was  a  fortress  and  a  joint  tenement  house  of  the  average 
American  model.  These  pueblos,  newly  constructed,  and  in 
their  best  condition,  must  have  presented  a  commanding  ap 
pearance,  from  the  material  used  in  their  construction,  from 
their  palatial  size  and  unique  design,  and  from  the  cultivated 
gardens  by  which  they  were  doubtless  surrounded,  all  of  which 
were  calculated  to  impress  the  beholder  with  the  degree  of 
culture  to  which  the  people  had  attained." 

Mr.  Morgan  speaks  also  of  nine  pueblos  within  a  compass 
of  a  mile  square,  and  a  round  tower,  which  was  the  most  singu 
lar  feature  in  the  structure.  It  differs  from  the  ordinary 
estufa  in  having  three  concentric  walls— the  inner  chamber 
about  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  the  spaces  between  the  encir- 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


235 


cling  walls  about  six  feet,  the  thickness  of  the  wall  about  two 
feet  and  six  inches.     This  tower  stands  entirely  isolated. 

IV.  We  see,  then,  that  the  defensive  character  of  the 
"  Great  Houses "  was  very  prominent,  and  that  the  name 
They  were,  to  be  sure,  not  ordinary  houses, such  as  people  live 
in  nowadays,  unless  we  take  the  apartment  houses  or  flats 
Fortress  is  appropriate  for  them.  There  was,  however,  a  do 
mestic  life  which  embodied  itself  in  them,  and  which  makes 
the  term  houses,  or  "  Great  Houses,"  even  more  appropriate, 
which  are  ^o  com 
mon  in  the  cities,  as 
our  model.  The  fol 
lowing  are  the  ele 
ments  of  domestic 
life  which  became 
embodied  in  them: 

i.  There  w  ere 
apartments  for  the 
families;  each  fam 
ily  having  a  suite  of 
rooms  which  was  ar 
ranged  vertically,  the 
storerooms  below  on 
the  first  story,  which 
was  closed,  and  the 

living    apartment   in  RUINED  PLEBLO    ON  THE  CHACO. 

the  second  and  third 
story,  the  apartments  of  the  chiefs  on  the  highest  stories. 

2.  There  were   estufas,  or   kivas  in   connection  with  every 
pueblo  or  "  Great   House."     These  varied   in  size  and  position, 
but  were  generally  in  the   court    and    in    front   of  the   terraces, 
They  were  places  where   the   secret   societies   assembled,  where 
the  youth  were    initiated  and  the  children  were  educated,  and 
religious  ceremonies  were  conducted. 

3.  The  houses  were  built  around  three  sides  of  a  square  and 
had  a  double  wall  across  the  other  side.     The  area  thus  enclosed 
was   used  for   religious   ceremonies,  processions,  and   for  play 
grounds.     Where  the   "  Great   House "   was  built  on  the  level 
ground  the  court  was  in  front  of  the  building,  but  in  some  there 
were  two  or  three  courts. 

4.  There  were  walls  and  windows,  ceilings  and  floors,   lin 
tels  and  door-sills   in  these  houses,  exactly  as  in  modern  houses. 

5.  The  walls  were  ornamented  and  whitewashed,  and  pre 
sented  an   attractive  appearance.     The   outside   walls  were   also 
built  with  varied  colored  stones,  and  were  symmetrical  and  showed 
much  taste.     The  angles  where  the  great  buildings  joined  were 
sometimes  bungling,  for  there  were  no  connecting  joints.     One 
wall  was  set  up  against  another.     There  were   no    columns    and 


236  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

no  arches,  no   piers  nor  lintels,  and  even  the  sills  were  rude,  un 
hewn  stone. 

These  peculiarities  indicate  the  social  state  of  the  people. 
They  show  that  they  were  in  the  middle  status  of  barbarism,  or 
about  half  way  between  the  Mound-Builders  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  the  partially  civilized  tribes  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America.  The  fact  that  they  could  build  such  massive  stuctures 
which  could  be  occupied  by  such  a  great  number  of  families, 
prove  that  they  were  much  in  advance  of  the  ordinary  Indian. 
They  certainly  present  forms  of  architecture  and  styles  of  art 
which  no  ordinary  Indian  has  ever  reached.  There  has  been  a 
tendency  to  minimize  their  skill  and  bring  down  their  social 
status  to  the  level  of  the  hunting  tribes,  but  the  contrast  between 
these  and  the  round  huts  of  the  Pimas  and  the  conical  huts  of 
the  Apaches  is  enough  to  refute  all  this.  The  testimony  of  the 
early  explorers  is  in  this  respect  more  reliable  than  some  of  the 
later,  for  they  realized  the  difference  between  the  Indians  and  the 
Pueblos.  There  is  certainly  a  difference  between  an  Indian  vil 
lage  and  a  Cliff-Dweller's  village.  There  is  also  a  marked  dif 
ference  between  a  Cliff-Dweller's  village  and  the  ordinary 
Pueblos.  There  is  also  a  difference  between  these  Pueblos  and 
the  straggling  villages  which  have  beeen  found  on  the  Gila  and 
from  there  to  Chihuahua.  These,  taken  together  constitute  four 
or  five  grades  of  architecture,  and  indicate  four  or  five  types  of 
.life,  each  one  of  which  was  undoubtedly  closely  conformed  to 
the  environment.  This  is  the  testimony  of  nearly  all  the  early 
explorers,  and  his  been  confirmed  by  the  p.uticuKir  study  of  the 
structures  in  these  several  localities,  and  especially  those  which 
are  now  in  ruins. 

We  notice  furlher  that  there  is  a  great  difference  between  an 
Indian  wigwam  and  a  Cliff  Dweller's  house.  There  is  also  a 
difference  between  a  Cliff-Dweller's  house  and  a  Pueblo.  There  is 
also  a  difference  between  the  Pueblos  on  the  plateau  and  the  Great 
Houses  on  the  Gila,  though  the  people  may  have  all  followed 
an  agricultural  life,  and  may  be  classed  with  agriculturists  rather 
than  with  the  hunters.  If  we  were  to  draw  the  comparison  between 
the  prehistoric  agriculturists  and  the  modern  agriculturists,  we 
should  say  that  those  who  dwelt  in  the  pueblos  give  lull  as  much 
evidence  of  a  comfortable,  peaceful,  and  contented  domestic  life, 
and  can  by  no  means  be  classed  with  savages,  or  ordinary  blanket 
Indians.  This  is  true  especially  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  as  well 
as  the  Pueblos,  for  the  early  explorers  have  recognized  the  su 
periority  of  the  architecture  and  art  of  this  unknown  people, 
and  give  their  testimony  in  reference  to  it,  while  some  of  the 
later  explorers  se  m  to  bring  everything  which  this  mysterious 
people  have  left,  down  to  the  level  of  the  rudest  class  of  the 
aborigines.  We  do  well  to  take  this  testimony  and  make  our 


':. 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


237 


ideas  of  the  domestic  state   of  the   Cliff-Dvveller  and    Pueblo  as 
correct  as  possible. 

The  best  illustration  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Pueblos  or 
"  Great  Houses  "  which  have  have  been  spoken  of,  as  well  as 
the  differences  which  exist  between  them  and  the  other  struc 
tures,  will  be  found  in  the  ruined  pueblos  which  are  situated  in 
the  Chaco  canon,  and  which  have  been  often  visited  and  described. 
We  shall  therefore  give  considerable  space  to  these. 

Mr.  Morgan  says : 

The  finest  structures  of  the  village  Indians  of  New  Mexico  and  north 
ward  of  its  present  boundary  are  found  on  the  San  Juan  and  its  tributaries, 
"  unoccupied  and  in  ruins."  The  supposition  is  reasonaole  that  the  village 
Indians  north  of  Mexico  had  attained  their  highest  culture  and  develop 
ment  where  these  stone  structures  were  found.  They  are  similar  to  the 
stvle  and  plan  of  the  present  occupied  pueblos,  but  as  superior  in  construc 
tion  as  stone  is  superior  to  adobe,  or  cobble-stone  and  adobe  mortar.  They 


MAP 

of  a  portion  «f 

CHACO  CANON 


are  also  equal  if  not  superior  in  size  and  in  the  extent  of  their  accommoda 
tion.  They  are  all  constructed  of  the  same  material  and  on  the  same  general 
plan,  but  they  differ  in  ground  dimensions,  in  the  number  of  rows  of  apart 
mants,  and  in  the  number  of  stories.  They  contain  from  one  hundred  to 
six  hundred  apartments  each,  and  would  accommodate  from  five  hundred 
to  four  thousand  persons. 

The  impression  formed  is  that  these  ancient  ruined  pueblos 
were  both  fortresses  and  agricultural  settlements,  as  they  were  sit 
uated  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  valley,  but  were  built  up  like  fortresses. 
The  valley  differs  from  the  great  canons  in  the  lowness  of  the 
bordering  walls.  The  canon  is  about  five  hundred  yards  wide, 
and  is  perfectly  level  from  one  side  to  the  other.  There  are  no 
traces  of  irrigating  ditches,  yet  it  is  evident  that  agriculture  was 
practiced  by  the  people  who  dwelt  in  the  pueblos.  This  is 
proven  by  the  fact  that  so  many  pueblos  are  crowded  together, 
some  eleven  or  twelve  within  the  space  of  fifteen  miles,  each 
pueblo  having  been  the  abode  of  several  hundred  people.  We 
may  say  that  scarcely  any  settlement  in  modern  days  has  so 
abounded  with  a  teeming  population,  and  very  few  have  present 
ed  more  evidences  of  comfort  as  well  as  of  culture.  If  we  com- 


238  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

pare  them  with  the  frontier  cabins  and^hamlets  we  should  say 
that  the  pueblos  were  not  only  the  more  densely  populated,  but 
they  were  better  furnished  with  the  conveniences  of  domestic 
life,  and  the  struggle  for  existence  was  less  intense.  The  artistic 
skill  which  is  shown  by  the  specimens  of  art  is  quite  equal  to 
that  which  is  found  among  the  whites  who  have  made  their 
homes  in  the  same  region. 

General  Simpson  first  discovered  these  pueblos  in  1849,  an<^ 
furnished  an  excellent  description  of  them.  He,  however,  found 
only  seven  "  Great  Houses."  Mr.  Jackson  visited  them  in  1876, 
and  identified  eleven  sites  and  made  a  plat  of  them  all.  Mr.  F. 
T.  Bickford  in  i8go  visited  them  and  found  them  in  ruins.  He 
took  photographs  of  them  which  exhibit  their  peculiarities.  The 
map  given  by  Lieut.  Simpson  will  show  their  location  and  the 
relative  distances  between  them,  The  table  given  herewith  will 
show  the  size  of  each  and  the  number  of  estufas  and  the  num 
ber  of  stories,  as  well  as  the  distances  from  one  another.  The 
plans  which  are  given  in  the  plates  will  show  the  shapes  of  the 
pueblos.  The  cuts  which  are  taken  from  Mr.  Bickford's  en 
gravings,  will  show  their  present  condition.  The  quotations 
from  Mr.  Jackson's  account  will  give  iheir  general  characteristics. 
Speaking  of  the  Pintado,  he  says  : 

It  was  not  terraced  symetrically,  but  irregularly  after  the  manner  of  the 
present  pueblos.  The  ground  floor  was  divided  into  smaller  apartments 
than  the  second  floor,  the  rooms  in  the  lower  story  being  divided  into  two 
or  three.  The  second  story  was  ten  feet  between  the  joists,  and  the  third 
seven  feet.  Every  room  had  one  or  two  openings  in  the  form  of  window- 
like  doorways,  the  largest  of  which  are  twenty-four  by  forty  inches,  lead 
ing  into  living  rooms.  The  sills  of  these  doors  are  generally  about  two 
feet  above  the  floor.  In  the  west  wall  are  several  large  windows  looking 
outward  from  the  second  story,  and  in  the  north  wall  very  small  ones  only 
in  the  second  and  third  stories,  There  were  a  few  very  small  apertures  in 
the  first  story,  mere  peep  holes.  The  walls  of  the  first  floor  are  28  to  30 
inches  thick,  those  of  each  ascending  story  being  a  little  less.  The  mason 
ry,  as  it  is  displayed  in  the  construction  of  the  walls,  is  the  most  wonderf 
feature  in  these  ancient  habitations,  and  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  car 
less  and  rude  methods  shown  in  the  dwellings  of  the  present  Pueblos. 
Great  pains  were  taken  in  the  construction  of  the  doorways,  the  stones  be 
ing  more  regular  in  size  and  the  corners  dressed  down  to  perfect  right 
angles  ;  the  same  care  was  given  to  the  openings  in  the  lowest  floor  as  to 
those  in  the  upper,  In  the  northwest  corner  of  the  main  building,  back  of 
the  esfufas,  and  on  the  second  floor,  a  doorway  has  been  constructed  and 
leading  diagonally  from  one  room  to  another,  which  displays  particularly 
nice  workmanship.  The  lintels  were  in  nearly  every  case  composed  of 
small  round  sticks  of  cedar  or  pine,  placed  in  contact,  but  in  the  smaller 
openings  formed  by  a  single  slab  of  stone.  Although  there  is  a  great  di 
versity  in  the  size  of  the  stones  employed,  still  they  are  arranged  in  hori 
zontal  layers,  rows  of  the  larger  stones  alternating  with  rows  of  smaller 
ones,  presenting  at  a  little  distance  a  beautifully  laminated  appearance. 

Twelve  miles  from  the  Pueblo  Pintado  are  tbe  next  important  ruins, 
those  of  the  Pueblo  Wejigi.  The  walls  are  still  standing  of  considerable 
height  and  indicate  at  least  three  stories.  Two  miles  and  a  half  farther 
down  are  the  ruins  of  Una  Vida.  Here  there  is  a  break  about  a  half  mile  in 
the  bluff  in  the  center  of  which  stands  a  remarkable  butte  some  three 
hundred  feet  in  height.  In  the  gaps  we  have  five  distinct  views  of  the 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES.  239 

Sierra  San  Mateo  (Mount  Taylor).  The  Canyon  is  about  500  yards  wide 
and  is  perfectly  level  from  one  side  to  the  other.  The  pueblo  has  an  L 
shaped  main  building,  with  a  semicircular  wall.  In  the  enclosure  remains 
of  the  largest  estufa  are  to  be  found. 

One  mile  further  on  are  the  ruins  of  Hungo  Pavie  in  quite  perfect  con 
dition.  It  is  built  around  three  sides  of  a  court  which  is  enclosed  by  a 
semi-circular  wall.  The  single  estufa  is  situated  midway  in  the  north  build 
ing,  and  extended  up  to  the  top  of  the  second  story.  The  interior  has  six 
counter-forts  or  square  pillars  of  masonry  like  those  of  the  pueblo  Pintado 
built  into  the  encircling  wall  at  equal  distances  from  each  other. 

Two  miles  further  along  are  the  ruins  of  the  Chetro  Kettle,  whose  di 
mensions  are  440  by  250  feet.  There  are  seven  estufas,  four  of  which  are 
built  together  in  a  solid  body,  and  project  Jrom  the  main  building.  One  of 
these  is  noticeable  for  its  height,  rising  as  it  does  above  the  general  level 
of  the  ruin.  It  was  originally  divided  into  three  stories  all  above  ground. 
The  remnants  of  the  abutments,  between  the  first  and  second  floors  still 
remain  in  the  wall.  In  this  pueblo  was  the  room  described  by  Simpson, 
which  is  14  x  \J%  in  size,  and  10  feet  in  elevation.  In  this  ruin  there  was  at 
one  time  a  wall  running  around  three  sides  ot  the  building  9^5  feet  in 
length,  40  feet  in  height,  giving  37,400  square  feet  of  surface.  Millions  of 
pieces  of  stone  had  to  be  quarried  and  dressed  and  fitted  to  their  places. 
Massive  timbers  had  to  be  brought  from  a  distance  and  fitted  to  their 
places  and  then  covered.  The  other  details  of  window  and  door  making, 
plastering,  and  constructing  of  ladders,  must  have  employed  a  large  body 
of  intelligent,  well-organized,  skilful,  patient  and  industrious  people, 
under  thorough  discipline  for  a  very  longtime. 

Five  hundred  yards  below  and  close  under  the  perpendicular  walls  of 
the  canon  are  the  ruins  of  the  Pueblo  Bonito,  the  largest  and  most  remark- 
ble  of  all,  Its  length  is  544  feet  and  its  width  314  feet.  A  marked  feature 
is  the  difference  in  the  manner  of  construction.  It  was  not  built  with  unity 
of  purpose,  but  large  additions  have  been  spliced  in  from  time  to  time, 
producing  a  complexity  in  the  arrangement  of  the  rooms .  Several  of  the 
interior,  parallel  and  transverse  walls  are  standing  full  thirty  feet  high. 
Three  kinds  of  masonry  appear  at  various  places  throughout  the  building, 
showing  that  it  was  built  at  different  periods.  The  estufas  form  an  import 
ant  feature,  both  from  the  number,  size,  and  from  the  manner  in  which  they 
were  built.  There  were  twenty-one  of  them  in  all. 

Three  hundred  yards  further  are  the  ruinsot  Pueblo  Arroyo,  so  named 
because  it  is  on  the  verge  of  a  deep  arroyo  that  traverses  the  middle  of  the 
canon.  The  walls  of  the  first  story  are  very  heavy  and  massive,  still  stand 
ing  to  the  height  of  the  third  story.  The  arroyo  is  16  feet  deep,  but  there 
is  an  older  channel  cutting  in  near  the  large  ruin  of  about  one-half  the 
depth  in  which  are  exposed  some  old  lines  of  masonry.  Since  the  desertion 
of  this  region  the  old  bed  has  been  filled  to  the  depth  of  at  least  14  feet. 

Two  miles  further  down  are  the  ruins  of  the  Pueblo  Penasca  Blanca. 
which  next  to  the  Pueblo  Bonito,  is  the  largest  in  exterior  dimensions  of  all 
the  ruins.  The  dimensions  of  the  court  are  346  x  269  feet ;  the  outer  build 
ing  400  x  363  feet,  four  stories  in  height.  There  are  seven  estufas.  The 
rooms  average  20  feet  in  length. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  below  Pueblo  Del  Arroyo  was  a  stairway 
hewn  into  the  hard  sandstone,  each  step  30  inches  long  and  6  inches  deep, 
with  hand-holes  in  the  rock  in  the  steepest  part  of  the  ascent.  On  the  sum 
mit  of  the  bluffs,  half  a  mile  over  the  plateau,  are  the  ruins  of  the  Pueblo 
Alto.  They  are  situated  so  as  to  command  the  entire  horizon.  Away  to 
the  north  stretches  the  great  basin  of  the  Rio  San  Juan,  the  summits  of 
the  La  Plata  mountains  glimmering  faintly  in  the  distance.  The  Sierra 
Tunicha  stretches  across  the  entire  western  covered  summits  of  the  Sierra 
San  Mateo.  In  the  east  the  summits  of  the  Jemez  mountains  are  as 
view,  the  frosted  crown  of  Pelado  shining  above  them  all.  This  ruin  in 
htus  nearly  midway  and  above  all  the  others— dominating  them  so  far  as 
position  is  concerned. 


240 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


V.  The  comparison  of  the  Cliff- Dwellers  with  the  Pueblos 
will  be  interesting  in  this  connection.  We  have  shown  that  the 
cliff-dweilings  were  fortresses  as  well  as  houses,  and  were  per 
manently  occupied  and  so  had  the  same  character  as  the  "  Great 
Houses"  which  were  situated  on  the  mesas  and  in  the  valleys,  and 
were  called  Pueblos.  This  has  been  disputed  by  Mr.  Minde- 
liff,  who  has  explored  the  cliff-dwellings  in  the  Rio  de  Cielly,  as 
well  as  the  pueblos  on  the  Zuni  and  elsewhere.  His  theory 
seems  to  be  that  the  cliff-dwellings  were  temporary  resorts,  and 
only  to  be  compared  to  the  Tusayan  "  Kisis,"  brush  shelters,  and 
the  "watch  towers"  of  the  Zunis — in  other  words  they  were  horti- 


rr^Pn'  AI  ' 

torxrch 


3 


SPECIMENS   OF    MASONRY   ON   CHACO    CANYON.* 

cultural  outlooks,  occupied  only  during    the    "farming  season. "f 
In  speaking  of  the  ruins  in  Canyon  de  Chelley  he  says  : 

Here,  if  anywhere,  we  should  find  corroboration  of  the  old  idea  that 
the  cliff  ruins  were  the  homes  and  last  refuge  of  a  race  harrassed  by 
powerful  enemies  and  finally  driven  to  the  construction  of  dwellings  in 
inaccessible  cliffs,  where  a  last  ineffectual  stand  was  made  against  their 
foes  ;  or  the  more  recent  theory  that  they  represent  an  early  stage  in  the 
development  of  pueblo  architecture,  when  the  pueblo  builders  were  few  in 
number  and  surrounded  by  numerous  enemies.  Neither  of  these  theories 
are  in  accord  with  the  facts  of  observation. 

This  view  is,  however,  entirely  erroneous  for  the  cliff-dwell 
ings  on  the  Canyon  de  Chelly  and  on  the  Mancos  Canyon  were 
plainly  permanent  dwellings,  and  may  well  be  called  pueblos, 
for  they  had  all  the  elements  contained  in  the  pueblos,  and 
constituted  villages  which  were  placed  in  the  sides  of  the  cliffs 
for  the  sake  of  defense.  In  other  words  they  were  '/  Great 
Houses,"  and  resembled  those  which  we  have  been  describing 
with  the  single  exception  that  they  were  built  en  the  ledges 
instead  of  on  the  mesas  or  in  the  valleys,  and  were  better  forti 
fied  than  o.her  pueblos  or  Great  Houses. 

As  a  proof  of  this  we  would  refer  to  the  names  which  have 
been  given  to  them.  It  may  be  noticed  that  every  one  has  been 


*Rep.  Ethn.  B.  p.  92.     fFor  description  of  walls,  see  page  338. 


GREAT  HOUSKS'AND  FORTRESSES, 


241 


called  a  house — viz. :  Long  House,  Balcony  House,  White 
House  or  Casa  Blanca,  and  Montezuma  House.  One  has  been 
called  the  Cliff  Palace,  another  has  been  called  Montezuma  Cas 
tle  ;  but  not  a  single  one  has  received  the  name  of  "outlook,"  or 
"summer-house,"  or  "farming  shelter,"  or  "refuge,"  which  would 
indicate  that  no  one  else  had  formed  this  idea  of  the  cliff  villages. 
Furthermore,  if  we  take  specimens  found  in  the  Cliff  Canyon, 
the  Acowitz  Canyon,  Montezuma  Canyon,  Mancos  Canyon,  or 
any  of  those  found  on  the  Rio  de  Chelly,  such  as  Monumental 
Canyon,  Canyon  del  Muerto,  we  shall  find  that  they  are  as 
worthy  to  be  called  "  Great  Houses  "  as  any  of  those  situated 
upon  the  mesas  south  and  east,  and  far  more  worthy  than  those 
which  are  found  in  the  valleys  to  the  southwest.  This  is  an 


BALCONIES   AND    DOORS.* 

important  point  for  it  helps  us  to  distinguish  between  the  two 
great  classes  which  are  found  in  this  entire  region,  and  which 
were  evidently  built  by  two  different  races  or  stocks  of  pre-his- 
toric  people.  It  helps  us  also  to  decide  about  the  history  of  the 
Cliff- Dvvellers  and  to  realize  how  their  history  was  connected 
with  that  of  the  Pueblos,  an  s  disconnected  Irom  the  ruins  in 
the  southwest. 

We  shall  point  out  the  resemblances  and  dwell  upon  the  par 
ticular  features  somewhat  in  detail,  for  the  reason  that  these  are 
important  for  the  solution  of  the  problems.  They  are  as  follows: 

I.  The  cliff-dwellings  were  built  of  stone,  the  very  material 
from  which  the  large  majority  of  the  pueblos  or  "  Great  Houses  " 
were  built.  There  were,  indeed,  a  few  ''  Great  Houses,"  or 
pueblos  constructed  from  adobe.  These,  however,  are  far  to  the 
south  in  a  region  where  it  was  more  convenient  to  build  of  this 


*This  cut  shows  the  balconies  and  the  doors  and  the  walls  of  the  cliff-house  in  Navajo  Can 
yon,  which  was  first  described  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin.  The  following  cut  shows  the  doors  and 
the  walls  in  a  cliff-house  which  wrs  discovered  by  Mr.  W.  K.  Moorhead  and  Mr.  L:  W.  Gunckel. 
This  doorway  resembles  those  which  are  common  in  modern  hcuses,  except  that  their  is  no 
stone  lintel,  but  in  its  place  are  severrl  wooden  rods  which  are  held  together  by  wythes,  the  ends 
projecting  over  the  walls  which  constitute  the  sillsof  the  door.  The  resemblance  is  more  one  of 
appearance  than  of  construction.  Both  of  these  styles  doo  appear  in  the  pueblos. 


242 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


material.  The  adobe  was  the  stuff  from  which  the  walls  of  Casa 
Grande  were  erected,  and  constituted  also  the  substance  which 
was  used  in  the  scattered  houses,  which  are  now  buried  under 
neath  the  mounds  of  the  southwest.  There  were  a  few  houses 
built  up  of  wattle  work,  the  posts  having  been  supported  by 
boulders  which  form  the  foundations  of  the  houses.  These 
constitute  an  entirely 'different  class.  Their  iocation  is  marked 
by  what  are  called  the  boulder  sites,  which  are  very  numerous 

in  the  valley  of  the  Verde. 
A  few  houses  were  built 
of  lava  blocks.  These  have 
been  called  solitary  houses. 
2.  They  were  built  two 
or  three  stories  high  and 
were  always  closely  connect 
ed  and  resembled  the  pueb- 
loswhich  follow  the  honey 
comb  pattern.  They  differ 
in  this  respect  from  the  vil 
lages  in  the  southwest  and 
from  those  in  the  valley  of 
the  Verde.  The  first  are  gen 
erally  isolated  houses;  the 
jfj|  |  last  are  not  only  isolated  but 

v  /  n'l""    ^  i1    ,         ^  |     are   inferior  i°  their  method 

of  construction,  having  been 

DOORWAYS  OF  A  CLIFF    DWELLING.        bu{lt     of     boulderSf  and    were 

only  one  story  high.  This  is  an  important  distinction,  for 
he  "Great  Houses"  were  always  more  than  one  story 
in  height..  The  ruins  of  the  cliff-dwellings  are  scattered 
over  the  sides  of  the  cliffs  and  are  on  different  lev 
els,  but  they  were  evidently  when  constructed  more  than  one 
story  high.  The  number  of  stories  in  the  cliff  dwellings  varied 
according  to  locality,  but  were  generally  equal  to  those  of  the 
pueblos.  In  the  Cliff  Palace  the  buildings  were  five  stories 
high.  The  upper  stories  were  on  the  ledge  and  the  lower  stories 
below.  The  two  lower  stories  had  been  built  outside  the  limits 
of  the  arch,  and  lower  than  the  platform  of  the  cave.  In  the 
White  House  (Casa  Blanca),  in  the  Rio  de  Chelley,  there  was  a 
pueblo  several  stories  high  below  the  ledge  and  a  cliff  dwelling  on 
the  ledge.  It  is  supposed  that  they  were  connected. 

3.  As  to  the  courts  we  may  say  of  the  cliff  dwellings  when 
defense  was  the  chief  thing  these  were  back  of  the  house,  be 
tween  the  houses  and  the  cliff.  Access  to  them  was  prevented 
by  the  n  w  of  houses,  towers  and  walls  which  formed  a  line  close 
to  the  ledge.  But  the  kivas  were  placed  outside  of  the  row  of 
houses  on  the  sides  of  the  cliffs.  Courts  were  as  common 
among  the  Cliff  Dwellers  as  among  the  Pueblos,  but  more 


GREAT  HOUSES  AND  FORTRESSES. 


243 


irregular  in  shape,  as  they  followed  the  lines  of  the  cliff.  The 
courts  were  used  for  play-houses,  sometimes  for  weaving,  and  a 
part  of  them  for  cooking,  and  resembled  the  terraces  of  the 
"  Great  Houses."  The  stores  were  frequently  placed  in  niches 
back  of  the  courts.  Storage  rooms  were  placed  in  the  sides  of 
the  cliffs  above  the  houses,  as  can  be  seen  in  the  case  of  the 
High  Houses  on  the  Mancos  (Fig.  3  and  4).  These  were 
sometimes  placed  in  niches,  or  cubby  holes  in  the  rock,  a  few 
feet  above  the  river  valley,  which  were  used  for  caches  or  store 
houses  and  were  reached  by  either  rope  ladders  or  by  climbing 
up  the  precipice  through  the  aid  of  hand-holes.  Mr.  Gushing 
says  the  stores  were  placed  in  such  out-of-the-way  caches  in  or 
der  to  keep  them  from  the  depredations  of  the  smaller  animals 
which  frequented  the  region,  as  well  as  to  protect  them  from  the 
hands  of  men. 

4.  The   terraces   are    prominent   in   all   the   cliff-dwellings. 
They  were    generally   turned    in   toward  the   cave,  or   the  rock. 
The  houses  presented  a  dead  wall  to  the  outside  of  the  cave.    In 
this  respect  they  were  just  the  reverse  of  the  pueblos,  or  "  Great 
Houses,"  for  in  them  the  court  was  inside  of  the  house   and  the 
walls  were  either  made  to  curve,  or  to  bend  around  the  three 
sides  of  the  court,  the  round  towers  having  their  walls  made  in 
a  complete   circuit,  the   court   inclosed  by  the  crescents,  which 
were  concave  toward  the  court.     In  the  cliff-dwellings  the  horns 
of  the  crescent  were  generally  turned  out  and  the  largest  houses 
were  in  the  concave.     The  courts  were  between  these  and   the 
rocks,  the  walls  and  the  rocks  making  a  double  crescent. 

5.  The  balconies  are  common  in  the  cliff  dwellings  and  the 
ancient    pueblos.     One    house  is  called  "  Balcony  House  "  on 
account  of   the   balconies    found  in  it.     The  Spaniards  found 
balconies   in   the  pueblos  at  Zuni  and  Acoma    and   elsewhere. 
They  took  refuge  under  one  during  a  snow  storm.     Castenada 
speaks  of  this. 

6.  Roofs,  floors  and    timber  work  are  essentially  the  same 
in   the    clliff    dwelling  as  in  the  pueblos.     Lieutenant  Simpson 
has  described   the  floors    in    the    ruined  pueblos  on  the  Chaco. 
The   cut  given  with  this  will    show   how  the  floors  were  made. 
Mr.  Mendeliff  says,  so  far  as  regards  the  use  of  timber  as  an 
element  of  construction  of  the  cliff  dwellings,  the  specimens  of 
de  Chelly  are  rude  and  primitive   as  compared  with  the  works 
found  in  other  regions. 

7.  The  doorways  fin  the  cliff  dwellings  are  very  interesting. 
These    contain  a  history  in  themselves  and  give  hints  as  to  the 
development  of  architecture    in    this    far-away    region,  and  its 

*  Mr.  Chapin  says  the  Cliff-Dwellers  used  hampers  in    which  they  carried  burdens,  and  straps 
to  put  thiough  their  handles,  ollas,  or  water  jars. 

|An  illustration  of  the  doorway  in  a  Cliff-Dweller's  house  is  given  in  the  cut.  It  is  to  be  seen 
that  there  no  piers  and  no  lintels,  and  that  the  sides  are  made  of  rude  masonry,  and  yet  the 
attractivess  of  the  doorway  consists  in  its  simplicity. 


244  PRIMITIVE  ARHITECTURE. 

ddaptation  to  the  surroundings.  The  typical  Cliff-Dweller' 
aoor  was  made  narrow  at  the  bottom  and  wide  at  the  top,  with 
L  square  jog  half  way  up.  This  was  for  the  convenience  of 
hose  who  carried  burdens  from  the  valleys  below  up  the  cliffs, 
on  their  backs, and  who  could  not  lay  them  down  before  they  had 
reached  the  inside  of  the  houses.  The  doors  are  suggestive  of 
a  life  which  was  peculiar  to  the  Cliff-Dwellers.  The  people 
were  compelled  to  carry  corn  from  the  valleys  up  to  the  liouses 
hidden  among  the  cliffs.  Even  the  water  was  carried  in  pot 
tery  vessels  which  were  placed  in  a  net,  which  was  supported 
about  the  head  by  a  band,  the  net  being  hung  over  the  back. 
This  would  require  strength  and  courage.  The  women  were 
the  water  carriers  and  the  doorways  were  for  their  convenience. 
8.  The  walls*  of  the  cliff-dwellings  resembled  those  in  the 
"  Great  Houses."  They  varied  in  their  finish.  Sometimes 
there  were  two  or  three  kinds  of  walls  in  the  same  buildings, 
showing  different  periods  of  occupation.  Generally  the  walls  of 
the  cliff-dwellings  were  superior  to  those  of  the  putblos.  This 
is  the  universal  testimony  of  all  the  explorers.  The  opinion 
has  been  expressed  that  there  was  a  great  decline  after  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers  left  their  original  habitat.  There  are  many  specimens  of 
highly  finished  masonry  in  the  walls  ;  these  especially  are  found 
in  the  towers,  for  in  them  the  stones  are  cut  or  broken  so  as  to 
coniorm  to  the  circle.  The  walls  were  sometimes  decorated  so 
as  to  present  a  very  tasty  appearance.  A  specimen  of  this  orna 
mentation  is  seen  in  the  "  Cliff  Palace  "  which  is  represented  in 
the  cut.  The  description  of  this  has  been  given  by  Mr.  F.  H. 
Chapin, who  says  "abroad  band  has  been  painted  across  the  wall, 
and  above  it  a  peculiar  decoration,"  which  is  shown  in  one  of 
the  illustrations.  The  same  kind  of  decoration  was  found  by 
Mr.  Mendeliff  in  an  estufa  in  Canyon  de  Chelley.  No  such 
decoration  has  been  found  in  the  modern  pueblos. 


*  The  similarity  of  the  Cliff-Dwellings  to  the  Pueblos  may  be  seen  by  examining  the  cuts  and 
comparing  the  two  classes  of  structures,  especially  the  cuts  which  show  the  many  storied 
houses  of  Cliff  Palace  and  of  the  Pueblos  on  the  Chaco;  also  those  which  show  tne  itasonry  of 
the  ruined  walls  on  the  Chaco  and  those  on  theAnimas.  Also  those  showing  the  terraces  of  the 
Pueblos  of  the  Tusayans,  and  those  of  the  Cliff-Dwellings  on  the  Rio  de  Chelley. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  AND  WORKS  OE  THE  CLIFF 

DWELLERS. 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  religious  customs  of 
the  Pueblos,  and  several  persons  have  made  these  their  special 
study  and  have  brought  out  some  very  interesting  facts.* 

The  information  which  we  have  secured~from  these  various 
sources  shows  that  the  Pueblos  were  exceedingly  religious  and 
that  their  architecture,  art,  domestic  life,  social  state  and  tribal 
organization  were  very  much  influenced  by  the  religious  notions 
which  they  inherited  from  their  ancestors.  Some  of  these  no 
tions  and  customs  may  have  been  introduced  after  the  time  of 
the  discovery,  yet  the  supposition  is  that  they  were  practiced 
by  the  Cliff-dwellers  and  Pueblos,  who  were  the  same  people  ; 
and  the  information  which  we  have  received  from  them  will 
apply  equally  to  the  unknown  people.  Let  us  then  give  atten 
tion  to  the  facts  brought  out  : 

We  may  say  that  the  American  explorers  have  learned,  during 
the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  more  about  the  religious  customs 
of  the  people  than  the  Spanish  missionaries  did  in  three  hun 
dred  years.  The  early  Spanish  explorers,  to  be  sure,  noticed 
some  of  the  "  peculiar  structures,  to  which  they  gave  the  name 
of  estufas  or  hot-rooms,"  which  were  the  religious  houses  and 
places  of  assembly,  and  wrote  of  them  as  existing  in  every  vil 
lage  or  pueblo  which  they  visited.  They  wrote  also  of  the 
peculiar  custom  of  hailing  the  sun  every  morning  at  its  rising, 
a  custom  which  is  still  present  and  which  they  call  preaching  ; 
the  following  is  the  description  given  by  Castaneda  : 

"  They  do  not  have  chiefs,  but  are  ruled  by  a  council  of  the  oldest  men; 
they  have  priests  who  preach  to  them,  whom  they  call  papas  ;  these  are  the 
elders.  They  go  up  to  the  highest  roof  in  the  village  and  preach  to  the  village 
from  there,  like  public  criers,  in  the  morning  when  the  sun  is  rising — the 
whole  village  being  silent  and  sitting  in  the  galleries  to  listen.  The  estufas 
belong  to  the  whole  village.  It  is  a  sacrilege  for  the  women  to  go  into 
the  estufas  to  sleep.  They  burn  their  dead,  and  throw  the  implements  used 
by  them  in  their  work  into  the  fire  with  their  bodies.  The  young  men  live 
in  the  estufas,  which  are  in  the  yards  of  the  village  ;  they  (the  estufas)  are 

*  (Among  these  explorers  are  the  following :  Mr.  F.  H.  Gushing,  Mr.  J.  Walker  Fewkes, 
Dr.  Washington  Matthews,  Mr.  A  M.  Stephen,  Mr.  Jas.  A.  Stevenson,  Mrs.  Matilda  C.  Steven 
son,  Major  W.  J.  Powell.  All  of  these  persons  have  been  permittted  to  witness  the  secret  rites 
and  sacred  ceremonies  which  are  still  practiced  by  the  different  Pueblo  tribes.) 

(Mr:  F.  H.  Gushing  was  initiated  into  one  of  the  secret  orders  of  the  Zunis  and  was  baptized 
by  one  of  the  Zuni  chiefs  in  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  while  on  an  eastern  tour  with  these 
chiefs:  Dr.  Washington  Matthews  was  permitted  to  witness  the  sand-paintings  of  the  Navajos 
and  learn  from  these  their  peculiar  notions  as  to  the  nature  powers,  and  the  superstition  as  to  the 
efficacy  of  prayer  and  sand  paintings  combined  in  healing  the  sick  and  expelling  the 
evil  spirit  of  disease.  Mr.  J.Walter  Fewkes  has  made  a  special  study  of  the  religious  dances, 
dramas  and  symbols  of  the  Tusayans.  Mrs.  Matilda  C.  Stevenson  has  made  a  study  of  the  my 
thology  of  the  Sias,  a  tribe  living  near  the  Rio  Grande.)  The  reports  of  the  Ethnological  Bureau 
contain  these  descriptions,  with  many  plates  and  illustrations. 

245 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


underground,  square  or  round,  with  pine  pillars  ;  some  were  seen  with 
twelve  pillars,  and  with  four  in  the  center  as  large  as  two  men  could  stretch 
around.  The  floor  was  made  of  large,  smooth  stones  like  the  baths  of  Eu 
rope.  They  have  a  hearth  made  like  the  binnacle*  or  compass-box  of  a 
ship,  in  which  they  burn  a  handful  of  thyme  to  keep  off  the  heat,  and  they 
can  stay  in  there  just  as  in  a  bath.  The  top  was  on  a  level  with  the  gronnd. 
The  houses  belonged  to  the  vomen,  the  estufas  to  the  men." 

I.  Various  stories  have  arisen  in  ref" 
erence  to  the  religious  customs.  One 
is  that  the  eternal  fire  was  kept  alive 
by  the  priests  who  never  left  the  estufa, 
and  the  superstition  was  that  if  the  fire 
went  out  the  life  of  the  people  would 
become  extinct.  Another  is  tint  Mon- 
tezuma,  the  great  chief,  had  predicted 
the  coming  of  the  white  men,  and 
that  when  they  came  the  customs 
would  be  changed.  This  story  was 
connected  with  the  figure  of  the  tree, 
which  was  found  inscribed  on  the 
rock  near  a  sacred  spring,  but  seemed 
to  be  planted  with  branches  down 
ward  ;  the  prediction  was  that  this 
symbolized  the  condition  of  the  peo 
ple  after  the  whites  should  arrive. 

This  story  is  similar  to  the  one  which  is  so  common  among 
all  the  American  tribes,  uncivilized  and  civilized,  and  which 
recounts  the  exploits  of  a  person  who  is  represented  as  actually 
having  lived  among  the  people  but  was  a  sort  of  Culture  hero, 
a  Shaman  or  Medicine  Man,  and  at  the  same  time  a  Divinity 
similar  to  the  Messiah  of  the  whites.  The  tradition  is 
that  his  name  is  "  Poseyemo," — "  Moisture  from  Heaven."  He 
was  a  poor  boy,  but  was  chosen  chief,  and  soon  began  to  aston 
ish  the  people  with  prodigies.  His  fame  spread  and  he  exer 
cised  a  power  over  many  of  the  Pueblos,  very  much  as  the  char 
acter  called  "Pope"  did  during  the  rebellion  against  the  Span 
iards,  in  1780,  and  as  Tecumseh  and  the  prophet  did  in  later 
times.  Mr.  Gushing  identifies  him  with  the  Poshamka  of  the 
Zunis,  who  is  supposed  to  have  appeared  in  human  form  poorly 
clad,  and  therefore  rejected  by  men,  but  who  taught  the  ances 
tors  of  the  Zunis,  Taos,  Oraibi,  and  Coconimo  Indians,  their 
agriculture  and  other  arts,  their  system  of  worship  by  plumed 
sticks,  organized  their  secret  societies,  and  then  myste 
riously  disappeared  towards  his  home  in  "the  mist  enveloped 
city."  He  is  called  by  the  Queres,  "  Our  Father  from  the  East, 
that  cometh  together  with  the  sun."  He  is  still  the  auditor  of 


MONTEZUMA. 


*"  The  binnacle  or  box  of  a  compass :"  refers  probably  to  the  circular  shape  of  the  fire 
place  or  hearth.  See  translation  of  Castaneda's  narrative  by  Winship— i4th  annual  report  Bu 
reau  of  Ethnology,  p.  522. 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


247 


prayers,  the  invisible  ruler  of  the  spiritual  or  "  unseen  city," 
the  "Finisher  of  our  lives."  The  folk  lore  connected  with  him 
embodies  considerable  ancient  history  of  the  tribes,  especially 
of  the  Tehuas  on  the  Rio  Grande. 

Another  story  is  the  one  which 
was  told  to  J.  W.  Gregg.  It  is  that 
a  gigantic  snake  was  kept  in  the 
estufa  and  was  fed  with  human  vic 
tims.  This  story  probably  came 
from  the  custom,  which  is  still  in 
vogue  among  the  Zunis,  and  which 
also  may  have  prevailed  among  all 
the  tribes,  of  keeping  a  snake  effigy 
in  some  of  the  estufas  as  a  symbol 
of  the  rain-god.  There  was  also  a 
story  told  to  Gen.  Simpson  about 
the  deluge  which  swept  the  valley 
of  the  Zunis,  and  threatened  to  en 
gulf  the  village  itself,  which  was 
then  on  the  summit  of  the  mesa; 
but  the  people  were  directed  to  let 
down  a  youth  and  a  maiden  from 
the  summit  of  the  cliffs  as  a  sacrifice 
to  the  spirit  of  the  water  ;  when  they 
reached  the  water  the  flood  sub 
sided,  but  left  a  mark  high  up  in  the 
side  of  the  cliff  which  may  be  seen 
to  this  day.  The  youth  and  maiden  were  transformed  into 
stones,  and  the  images  of  them  are  still  pointed  out  on  the 
summit  of  the  cliff  near  by. 

These  stories  give  us  hints  as  to  the  superstitions  which 
formerly  prevailed  ;  they  however  very  poorly  represent  the 
religious  systems  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  or  Pueblos. 

The  story  of  creation  is,  however,  more  instructive.  This  is 
found  among  all  the  Pueblo  tribes,  including  those  on  the  Rio 
Grande  and  on  the  Gila,  and  the  Zunis  and  Moquis  and  others. 
It  prevails  among  the  so-called  wild  tribes,  the  Navajos  and 
the  Pimas,  and  even  the  Apaches.  It  will  be  well  to  follow  up 
this  story  as  told  by  these  different  tribes,  and  see  how  much 
there  was  in  common  between  them  and  yet  how  many  things 
were  different.  The  contrast  is  due  to  the  ethnic  affinities  and 
training  of  the  tribe,  and  especially  to  the  coloring  which  was 
drawn  from  the  scenery,  but  the  resemblance  shows  that  the 
story  was  transmitted  from  tribe  to  tribe. 

The  following  is  the  Navajo  version  as  told  by  Dr.  W. 
Matthews  : 

"Our  fathers  dwelt  in  four  worlds  before  this.  In  the  first  it  was 
dark  and  small  ;  in  the  second  they  found  the  sun  and  moon  and  different 
colors  -south,  blue  light ;  west,  yellow  light  ;  in  the  north,  white  light  ;  in 
the  east,  darkness.  In  the  third  world  they  found  a  land  bounded  like 


TRANSFORMED   YOUTHS. 


248  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

their  present  home,  by  four  mountains — San  Mateo,  Salt  Lake,  San  Fran 
cisco  and  San  Juan.  The  flood  came  and  took  soil  from  all  the  four  moun 
tains  and  placed  it  on  the  mountain  of  the  north,  which  began  to  grow 
higher  and  higer,  and  the  people  climbed  upwards  to  escape  the  flood,  the 
water  following  them.  They  planted  on  the  summit  a  great  reed  and 
through  this  they  escaped.  In  the  fourth  world  they  found  the  mountains 
and  seas  the  same  as  in  the  third  world,  but  a  great'  river  ran  through  the 
center  ;  on  this  they  settled.  When  they  came  to  the  fifth  world  they  found 
a  great  lake,  and  on  the  lake  four  swans— a  black  swan  in  the  east  and  a 
blue  swan  in  the  south.  Still  they  were  in  trouble  for  they  could  not  reach 
dry  land  ;  they  prayed  to  him  of  the  darkness  in  the  east  ;  he  with  his  horn 
cut  through  the  cliffs  and  he  made  a  canon  through  which  the  waters  flowed 
away.  The  land  was  still  soft  and  muddy  ;  they  prayed  to  the  four  winds 
which  came  and  blew  a  gale,  and  the  ground  became  dry  so  they  could 
walk  on  it.  The  sun  and  moon  went  into  the  heavens — one  began  to  shine 
in  the  day,  and  the  other  in  the  night." 

Another  story  involves  the  creation  of  the  light  and  the 
rising  of  the  sun  : 

"The  light  was  made  from  a  white  shell  and  a  greater  light  from  the 
turquoise.  Eagle  plumes  were  placed  upon  the  turquoise  and  the  shell, 
and  a  crystal  was  held  over  them  and  the  plumes  were  lighted  into  a  blaze. 
On  the  surface  there  were  twelve  men  living  at  each  of  the  cardinal  points, 
and  two  rainbows  crossing  one  another  made  the  canopy  of  the  heavens. 
The  heads  and  feet  of  the  rainbow  almost  touched  the  men's  heads.  The 
first  task  was  to  raise  the  sun  in  the  sky,  for  it  was  too  near  ;  it  burned  the 
vegetation  and  scorched  the  people.  They  made  the  attempt,  but  the  sun 
tipped.  At  last  they  called  upon  the  twelve  men  at  the  cardinal  points  and 
said, 'Let  us  stretch  the  world.'  The  men  blew  and  stretched  the  world 
and  lifted  the  sun  and  saw  it  rise  beautifully,  and  then  went  back  and  be 
came  "the  holders  of  the  heavens."* 

Among  the  Navajos  the  story  was  symbolized  by  the  Kiva, 
which  was  always  in  the  shape  of  a  hemispherical  hut  which 
had  the  humanized  rainbow  painted  upon  its  surface — the  feet 
upon  one  side  and  the  head  upon  the  other — the  doorway  being 
made  up  of  different  colored  skins,  white  representing  the  day 
light,  the  blue  the  dawn. 

The  Zuni  tradition  is  interesting.     It  is  as  follows : 

"The  people  were  led  up  from  the  lower  world  by  two  war-gods — 
Ashalti  and  Maasewe,  twin  brothers,  sons  of  the  sun— who  were  sent  by 
the  sun  to  bring  the  people  to  his  presence.  These  gods  occupy  important 
positions  in  Zuni  mythology. 

"Another  story  is  that  a  brother  and  sister  dwelt  together  on  a  moun 
tain,  but  were  transformed — the  youth  into  a  hideous  looking  creature,  the 
maiden  into  a  being  with  snow  white  hair.  The  youth  descended  the  moun 
tain,  swept  his  foot  in  the  sards  of  the  plain,  immediately  a  river  flowed 
and  a  lake  appeared  ;  in  the  depths  of  this  lake  a  group  of  houses,  and  in 
the  center  of  the  group  an  assembly  house  or  a  Kiva,  piovid(d  with  many 
windows/!"  This  lake  contains  the  waters  of  everlasting  happiness  and  the 
village  is  the  final  abode  of  the  blessed,  and  the  passageway  to  it  is  through 
the  mountains." 


*  This  expression   reminds  us   of  the    Scandinavian   myth   of  the   dwarfs  who  hold  up    the 
heavens. 

f  The  first  of  the  Zuni  to  cross  this  river  were  the  bear  gens,  the  corn  gens,  and  the  sand  hill 
crane  gens. 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


249 


II.  A  more  reliable  source  of  information  is  that  which  is  fur 
nished  by  the  secret  societies  which  various  American  explorers 
have  been  permitted  to  join,  but  from  which  the  Spaniards  were 
excluded.  These  societies  probably  have  survived  from  pre 
historic  times,  and  perpetuate  the  myths  then  prevalent.  Each 
of  these  different  societies  has  its  own  lodge  or  estufa  ;  thir 
teen  among  the  Zunis  ;  eight  among  the  Sias  ;  seven  among 
the  Tusayans.  They  are  named  after  animals,  such  as  snakes, 


\NAY 


EMBLEMS    OF    THE    MAMZRAU    SOCIETY.* 

pnts,  birds,  beasts  of  prey  ;  such  as  bears,  cougars,  wolves  ; 
they  are  subdivided  into  bands  which  represented  the  car 
dinal  points  and  held  esoteric  relations  with  the  cloud  peo- 

*In  the  screen  of  the  Walpi  we  find  the  same  symbols  of  the  rain  clouds,  the  sky  arches  the 
lightning  serpents,  sun  emblems  and  corn  maids.  '1  hese  symbols  of  widely  different  societies 
refer  to  the  fertilization,  growth  and  maturity  of  corn,  and  the  effect  of  the  rain  clouds  and  the 
nature  powers.  There  ere  representations  of  "  supernatural,"  male  and  female  culture  heroes 


lature  po 
and  corn 


lids. 


250  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

pie,  also  with  the  sun  and  moon,  with  the  earth  and  the  ele 
ments.  The  members  had  their  bodies  marked  with  emblems 
which  represented  these  various  objects,  such  as  crescents, 
stepped  figures,  spots,  circles,  etc.  They  have  their  altars  and 
sand  paintings,  their  theurgic  rites,  their  medicine  ceremonials 
and  rain  ceremonials,  and  their  mythologies,  which  are  very 
carefully  guarded.* 

These  ceremonies  consist  in  the  use  either  of  live  serpents  or 
of  serpent  effigies,  in  connection  with  rain  symbols,  and  various 
personages  who  are  tricked  out  in  strange  costumes  and  para 
phernalia,  and  were  generally  celebrated  in  the  estufas.  It  was 
at  the  initiation  of  the  children  into  the  clan  that  the  most 
impressive  ceremonies  were  observed.  At  this  time  the  priests 
carried  the  snake  effigy  from  the  springs  of  water  up  to  the 
pueblos  and  deposited  it  in  one  of  the  estufas,  to  be  kept  over 
light;  in  tie  morning  it  was  carried  by  certain  persons  who 
represented  the  cloud  divinities  and  supernatural  beings,  with 
great  ceremony  anil  was  held  over  the  opening  in  the  roof  of 
the  kivas,  and  water  puured  through  it  into  the  vessels  which 
were  held  by  other  priests,  as  they  stood  on  the  floor  of  the 
kiva  below,  and  distributed  it  to  the  children  at  the  time  of 
their  initiation.  This  water  was  in  a  measure  sacred,  and  was 
regarded  as  the  water  of  life,  for  it  was  supposed  to  come  from 
the  clouds,  and  through  the  mouth  of  the  cloud  divinity.  It 
w^s  through  this  sume  snake  effigy  that  all  the  seeds  which 
were  to  be  planted,  and  were  to  furnish  food  for  the  people, 
were  poured  into  the  baskets  which  were  held  by  the  priests  as 
they  stood  below  the  opening  in  the  roof  of  the  kiva.  These 
seeds  were  also  carried  to  the  children  as  they  sat  upon  the 
ledges,  beside  their  grandparents  or  the  elders  of  the  tribe, 
and  were  considered  as  signs  of  the  favor  of  the  cloud  divinity. 
Surrounded  as  they  were  by  the  fetiches  or  animal  effigies, 
which  symbolized  the  divinities  of  the  sky  or  the  gods  of  the 
celestial  spaces,  the  children,  from  the  earliest  age,  learned  to 
look  at  the  powers  of  nature  as  emblems  of  divinity  and  full 
of  the  supernatural  beings.  They  were  taught  that  the  breath 
which  came  to  them  from  the  prayer  plume,  as  they  sat  in  the 
sacred  place,  was  the  very  breath  of  the  divinity,  and  they  must 
breathe  this  in  if  they  are  to  be  received, or  have  entrance  into  the 
beautiful  city,  or  pueblo,  beneath  the  water  of  the  sacred  lake.f 

Captain   Bourke  speaks  of  the  Apache  medicine  shirt  as 


*  (These  societies  have  been  described  at  great  length  by  J.Walter  Fewkes  and  Mrs.  M- 
'•  ptevenson,  Dr.  W.  Matthews,  F.  H.  Gushing,  and  others.  The  Dakotas  have  secret  societies 
which  are  religious  in  character  and  are  distinguished  by  the  name  of  animals;  they  also  have 
their  lodges,  but  they  are  constructed  ol  poles  covered  with  skins,  or  with  sods  above  the  surface, 
while  those  of  the  Zunls,  Moquis,  and  other  Pueblo  tribes,  are  constructed  of  stone  or  are  exca 
vated  out  of  the  rocks.  It  seems  probable  that  there  were  societies  similar  to  these  among  the 
cliff-dwellers,  as  their  rock- shelters,  shrines,  rock  inscriptions  and  estufas  seem  to  embody  the 
same  myths  which  are  dramatized  in  the  ceremonies  by  the  living  tribes.) 

t  This  ceremony  has  been  described  by  J.  Walter  Fewkes  at  great  length,  as  existing  among 
the  1  usayans.  XV.  Annual  Report  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  253.  Also  by  Mrs.  Stevencon,  as 
common  among  the  Sias. 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  251 

containing  figures  of  serpents  which  show  that  there  was  a  sim 
ilar  superstition  about  the  serpent  among  this  wild  tribe,  though 
there  was  no  record  of  any  ceremonies,  or  even  of  any  kiva  or 
estufa  resembling  those  common  among  the  Pueblos.  This 
will  show  that  whatever  may  be  said  about  the  Navajos,  the 
Apaches  belonged  to  a  different  tribe  and  stock  from  the  cliff- 
dwellers,  and  were  probably  their  enemies  from  time  immemo 
rial. 

The  snake  dance  was  another  religious  ceremony  which  was 
observed  in  connection  with  many  of  the  secret  societies.  This 
was  a  ceremony  which  symbolized  the  religious  beliefs  of  the 
natives.  The  snake  was  supposed  to  be  the  symbol  of  the  rain- 
god,  so  the  live  snakes  had  a  supernatural  power  and  a  peculiar 
charm  in  bringing  rain  in  its  season.  There  were  many  other 
ceremonies  celebrated  by  the  Tusayans,  Zunis,  Seris  and  Nav 
ajos,  all  of  them  under  the  charge  of  the  secret  societies  and  at 
certain  fixed  seasons  of  the  year.  These  ceremonies  were  also 
practiced  by  the  cliff-dwellers.  There  were,  to  be  sure,  not  the 
same  conveniences  for. observing  them,  for  the  houses  were  high 
up  on  the  cliffs,  yet  it  is  not  unlikely  that  processions  were  ltd 
out  from  the  cliffs  and  down  the  ledges,  along  the  valleys  to  the 
various  shrines  where  snakes  and  other  animals  are  still  to  be 
seen  inscribed  upon  the  rocks.  Mr.  C  F.  Lummis  has  described 
a  race  at  Acoma  in  which  the  runners  followed  one  another  along 
the  -front  of  the  pueblo,  which  stretched  for  a  thousand  feet  in 
length,  and  then  down  the  steep  pathway.  Mr.  Fewkes  has  de 
scribed  a  ceremony  called  the  flute  dance,  and  another  called  the 
antelope  dance,  both  of  which  were  out-of-doors  and  had  to  do 
with  the  seasons  and  the  operations  of  nature. 

Mr.  James  Stevenson  speaks  of  the  Medicine  Lodges  or 
Sweat-houses  of  the  Navajos  ;  they  are  placed  above  the  ground 
and  are  mere  lodges,  but  the  sand  paintings  which  are  wrought  in 
their  ceremonies  are  very  instructive  and  suggestive.  The  lodges 
differ  from  the  estufas  and  symbols  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers 
and  they  suggest  an  entirely  different  form  of  religion  and  a 
separate  line  of  religious  development. 

III.  The  estufas,  or  kivas,  are  very  instructive  in  reference 
to  the  religion  of  the  Cliff-dwellers.  It  has  been  claimed  by  some 
that  the  kivas,  or  estufas  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  were  the  earliest 
buildings  of  the  Pueblos,  and  that  they  perpetu  ite  the  form  of 
hut  or  house  in  which  the  Cliff-dwellers  lived  before  they  adopted 
the  pueblo  style  of  architecture.  As  the  villages  grew  and  be 
came  compacted  into  great  villages  or  Grand  Houses,  the  estufas 
changed  their  shape  and  came  to  assume  the  square  or  oblong 
shape,  similar  to  that  of  the  Pueblos  They  have  been  the  ob 
jects  of  curiosity  with  all  explorers,  and  some  parts  of  the  estufas 
have  been  a  great  puzzle. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  as  early  as  1875,  noticed  the  circular 
rooms  in  the  midst  of  the  cliff-dwellings,  and  called  them 


252  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

estufas.  He  gave  .a  full  description  of  the  one  on  the  Rio- 
de-Chelly,  and  noticed  the  "box-like"  ledges  in  the  wall, 
also  the  narrow  opening  which  he  imagined  was  the  entrance 
to  the  estufa,  though  it  has  since  proved  to  be  an  air  chamber 
for  ventilation.  He  did  not  connect  the  estutas  with  the  rock- 
paintings  or  shrines,  nor  did  he  ascribe  the  circular  form  to  the 
mythology  which  prevailed  among  the  cliff-dwellers. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  later  explorers,  such  as  Mr.  F.  H. 
Chapin,  Mr.  Nordenskjold,  and  Mr.  Mindeleff,  to  discover  the 
existence  of  the  ledges  and  the  piers,  and  to  perceive  the  use  of 
the  opening  in  the  wall,  which  was  really  a  flue  or  air-chamber, 
designed  to  ventilate  the  room  and  carry  off  the  smoke,  rather 
than  as  an  entrance.  Mr.  F.  H.  Gushing  has  given  the  best  in 
terpretation  of  the  different  parts  of  the  estufa.  He  says  that  the 


ESTUFA    WITH    PIERS    IN    ACOWITZ    CANON. 

different  piers  which  are  found  in  the  walls  and  which  separate  the 
ledges,  represent  the  six  supports  of  the  sky,  and  that  the  whole 
estufa  was  built  so  as  to  be  symbolic  of  the  sky  with  its  four  cor 
ners,  and  the  zenith  and  nadir.  The  circular  form  represented 
the  sky;  the  roof  and  fire-place  represented  the  elements  above 
and  below;  and  the  opening  in  the  floor  represented  the  place  of 
beginning  or  "emergence."  Thus  the  mythology  of  the  cliff- 
dwellers  was  embodied  in  the  estufa.  This  mythology  has  been 
described  by  Dr.  Washington  Matthews  :  it  is  to  the  effect  that 
at  the  earliest  date  the  human  beings  were  confined  in  a  dark 
cave  below  the  ground;  but  the  divinities  took  pity  upon  them 
and  let  the  light,  by  degrees  into  the  cave,  in  answer  to  their 
prayer.  The  people  then  managed,  by  the  aid  of  certain  animals, 
to  secure  an  opening  in  the  roof,  and  by  means  of  a  reed  which 
was  inserted  in  the  opening,  or,  according  to  another  version,  by 
means  of  a  ladder  made  from  a  pine  tree,  were  able  to  climb  up 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  253 

from  the  dark  cave.  This  occurred  four  times,  the  abode  of  the 
people  becoming  lighter  and  lighter  as  they  ascended.  There  is 
another  part  of  the  story  in  which  it  appears  that  the  waters  of 
the  deluge  followed  the  people  up  through  the  opening  in  the 
cave  and  flooded  the  valley,  and  it  was  only  after  a  long  time 
that  the  land  became  dry  enough  for  the  people  to  cross  it.  The 
mythology  of  the  Navajos  and  other  living  tribes  may  be  used 
to  explain  certain  parts  of  the  estufas,  but  care  should  be  taken 
lest  we  mingle  the  later  myths  with  the  earlier,  and  ascribe  the 
white  man's  traditions  to  the  aborigines.  We  may  say  that  the 
architecture  of  the  estufas  of  the  cliff-dwellers,  with  its  six  piers 
and  its  ledges,  its  circular  place  in  the  center  where  was  the  fire, 
its  ladder  which  was  placed  over  the  fire,  and  the  double  open 
ing  to  the  roof,  embodied  the  myth  of  creation  as  well  as  the  su- 


ROUND    HOUSE    IN    ACOWITZ    CANYON. 

perstitions  in  reference  to  fire.  It  reminds  us  of  the  construction 
of  the  rotunda  among  the  Muskogees  of  the  Gulf  states,  in  which 
the  fire  was  kept  burning  while  the  council  was  being  held,  the 
spiral  column  being  to  them  a  tribal  symbol.  It  also  reminds  us 
of  the  temples  of  the  Mayas  which  were  placed  on  the  summit 
of  a  pyramid  guarded  by  snake  effigies  which  seemed  to  descend 
from  the  sky  and  symbolized  the  rain-god.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  estufa,  or  sacred  chamber,  was  used  by  the  Cliff-dwellers 
to  commemorate  their  past  history  as  well  as  to  remind  them  of 
their  dependence  upon  the  rain  divinities,  inasmuch  as  ornaments 
or  painted  bands  have  been  discovered  on  the  walls  of  some  of 
them.*  That  they  were  places  of  social  resort  for  the  men  is  evi- 


*  The  piers  and  ledges  are  P  Iways  present  and  constitute  the  chief  features  of  the  kivas  of 
the  Cliff-dwellers.  The  kivas  of  the  tribes  to  the  sonth,  such  as  the  Tusayan  and  the  Zunis,  do 
not  seem  to  have  retained  these  piers. 


254 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


dent,  from  the  fact  that  they  are  placed  near  the  cliff-villages. 
They  were  used  probably  as  council  houses  as  well  as  for  the 
meeting  of  the  secret  societies,  but  they  were  also  used  as  a  work 
shop  by  the  industrious  and  as  a  lounging  place  by  the  idle. 
There  are  still  traces  of  the  two  classes  of  Idva;  one  contains  the 
sipapuh  or  place  ot  emergence,  the  other  class  has  piers  or  ledges. 
The  kiva  with  the  sipapuh  is  nut  found  among  the  cliff-dwellers, 
that  we  know  of,  but  is  found  among  the  Zunis,  Moquis  or  Tu- 
sayans,  and  so  suggests  a  different  origin.  Another  interpre 
tation  of  the  estufa,  found  among  the  cliff-dwellings,  is  that  the 
walls  are  divided  into  ledges  and  square  pillars  or  piers,  six  in 
number,  with  design  to  represent  the  four  cardinal  points, 
and  the  zenith  and  nadir,  as  well  as  the  four  caves  through  which 


Plonof  1*  CLIFF  DWELLING      Moncos  Canon. 
°        f        •,»       -f       y       f 

the  ancestors  of  the  people  came  before  they  reached  the  surface 
of  the  earth.  The  piers  may  possibly  represent  the  four  moun 
tains,  which,  according  to  the  mythology,  were  recognized  before 
they  reached  the  surface  and  afterwards  constituted  the  bounds 
of  their  habitat.  If  this  is  so,  it  shows  that  the  Cliff-dwellers 
and  the  Pueblos  occupied  the  -same  general  territory  in  pre-his- 
toric  times  and  had  the  same  mythology.  A  myth  to  the  same 
effect  prevails  among  the  Jicarilla  Apaches,  a  triba  which  is  sit 
uated  far  to  the  north,  near  the  head  waters  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  is  of  diverse  language  and  origin  from  the  Pueblos,  but  was 
once  located  near  the  Pueblo  village  of  Taos;  they  retain  a  sim 
ilar  myth  about  the  flood.  This  tribe  mention  the  four  moun 
tains — one  west  of  the  Rio  Grande,  one  to  the  east,  and  one  to 
the  southwest,  also  the  Sierra  Blanca,  to  the  southeast.  He 


The  cut  represents  the  six  room  cliff  village  called  by  Mi .  Chapin  the  Sandal  Cliff  House. 
was  the  place  near  which  the  Wetherills  discovered  the  largest  number  of  relics. 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


255 


CLIFF    VILLAGE  WITH  ESTUFA   AND  SPRING 
IN  A  CAVE. 


made  also  four  great  rivers  and   gave  them   their  names — in  the 

north,   the   Napeshti,  "  flint  arrow  river"  (the  Arkansas);  in  the 

west,  the  Chama.       He    made   other  rivers  but  he  did  not  give 

them  names  and  he  gave  the  country  to  the  Jicarillas.*  The  fact 

that  this  myth  or  tradition  of  the   creation  is   associated  by  this 

tribe  with  the  pueblo 

at  Taos,  explains  the 

word  which  was 

placed  upon  the  map 

given  by  the  Indians 

to  Gen.  Whipple;  this 

word  was  Sipapu,  or 

place   o  f  emergence, 

and    the     story    was 

that  from  this    place 

the     Pueblo     tribes 

originated. 

It  is  to  be  noticed 
that  the   location  of 
the  kivas  of  the  Cliff- 
dwellers       generally 
are     separate     from 

the  domestic  apartments.  §  Sometimes  they  are  placed  on  the 
summit  of  the  mesas  above  the  cave  dwellings,  and  occasionally 
they  were  on  the  same  ledge  but  at  one  extreme  of  it,  though 
on  the  same  level  with  the  houses.  In  some  villages  the  estufa 

was  in  the  very  cen 
ter  of  the  village ; 
the  entrance  to  the 
village  was  close  by. 
The  usual  method 
was  to  place  the 
kivas  on  the  sides 
of  the  cliff  with  the 
openings  in  the  roof 
on  the  level  with  the 
ledee,  so  that  thev 

f*  " 

could  b  entered 
from  the  top  without 
going  up  to  the 

apartments    or    going    down  the  cliffs. 

They  were  often  in  front  of  the  houses  and  thus  might  serve 

as  quasi  defenses    for    the    villages,  though  there  were  towers 

*  Anthropologist  for  July,  1898,  p.  197.     Article  by  James  Mooney  on  the  Jicarilla  Genesis. 

SThis  cut  represents  a  cluster  of  houses  and  an  Fstufa  and  some  walls  found  in  a  cave  in    But 
ler's  Wash  by  Lewis  W.  Gunckel.     The  Estufa   seems  to  be  the   most   ir 


CLIFF    VILLAGE    WITHOUT    ESTUFA. 


let's  Wash  by  Lewis  W.  Gunckel.     The  Estufa   seems  to  he  the   most   important   part   of  the  set 
tlement.     The  other  shows    the  d  fference  between  temporary  retreats  and  permar 
the  Estufa  is  always  present  in  a  permanent  village,  but  rarely  in  a  summer  resort. 


256  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

separate  from  the  kivas  which  served  as  citadels,  and  oc 
casionally  rooms  high  up  in  the  cliffs  where  the  warriors 
gathered  and  shot  arrows  through  the  loop-holes  in  the  walls. 
There  seems  to  have  been  a  division  of  the  people  into  sev 
eral  classes,  each  of  which  had  separate  apartments ;  these 
were  as  follows:  I.  The  women  and  children  were  gathered 
into  the  square  rooms,  which  were  built  compactly  and  clus 
tered  together  on  the  mesas  or  along  the  ledges  in  the  cliffs. 
The  children  are  supposed  to  have  occupied  the  area  back  of  the 
houses,  where  they  felt  comparatively  or  quite  secure,  inasmuch 
as  they  were  hidden  from  sight  by  the  houses,  and  were  sur 
rounded  by  those  who  were  constantly  on  the  alert  and  were 
interested  in  their  safety.  The  weaving  and  the  pottery  making 
and  basket  making  fell  to  the  young  women,  and  the  cooking 
or  baking  the  tortillas  fell  to  the  older  women.  The  apartments 
varied  in  their  shape,  location  and  character;  they  included  the 
storehouses,  or  caches,  which  sometimes  were  placed  in  the  sides 
of  the  cliffs,  at  a  distance  from  the  houses.  2.  There  seems  to  have 
been  a  class  of  warriors  or  "braves"  composed  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  people,  who  were  perhaps  directed  by  the  chief  or  war 
captain.  Some  of  these  were  placed  in  the  towers,  others  in 
the  loop-hole  forts,  and  still  others  scattered  among  the  differ 
ent  apartments.  3.  There  was  also  a  religious  class,  composed 
of  the  priests  or  medicine  men,  who  presided  over  the  sacred 
ceremonies;  the  secret  societies,  their  officers  and  members, 
each  of  which  had  its  own  lodge  and  its  own  symbolism.  4.  To 
these  should  be  added  the  young  men  and  boys  and  the  men 
who  had  no  especial  work  or  office.  These  remained  in  the 
kivas  during  the  night  and  also  spent  much  time  in  them  dur 
ing  the  day. 

The  manner  of  constructing  the  kiva  was  also  very  significant, 
as  each  part  was  supposed  to  be  sacred,  and  so  the  utmost  care 
was  observed,  The  whole  structure,  when  finished,  was  conse 
crated  as  most  modern  temples  and  churches  are.  There  have 
been  many  descriptions  of  this,  though  that  given  by  Mr.  Ad.  F. 
Bandelier  is  the  most  definite,  which  we  quote: 

"The  ancient  kivas  of  the  Cliff-dwellers  were  generally  round,  had  the 
fire  in  the  middle,  the  entrance  above  the  fire,  but  the  seats  were  deep 
ledges  or  shelves,  which  symbolize  the  six  spaces.  The  Sipapuh  or  opening 
has  not  been  discovered  thus  far  in  these  kivas,  though  the  air  chamber  or 
passage,  which  is  common,  is  found  in  nearly  all.  The  ceremonial  room 
among  the  Tusayans  is  separated  from  the  dwelling,  and  is  subterranean 
but  generally  located  at  points  where  the  depressions  already  existed 


\monitV Position  of  he  kivas  as  related  to  :he  pueblos,  seemed  to  vary  in  different  localities 
Among  the  Cliff-dwellers,  as  Nordenskjold  has  shown,  they  are  frequently  placed  in  front  or  to 
one  side  of  the  dwellings.  Among  the  ancient  pueblos  on  the  Chaco,  they  were  placed  in  the 
court  and  along  the  lines  of  the  honses  and  generally  raised  above  the  surface ;  among  the  Zunis 

.hey  were  sunk  beneath  the  floois  in  the  midst  of  the  apartments  of  the  pueblos  ;  among  the  Tu 
sayans  they  were  sunk  beneath  the  surface  of  the  rock.  Mr.  Bandelier  says:  "At  the  present 
ai£ien°tme  ?'  »VaS  °CCUpy  mar?inal  Positions  in  the  cell  clusters,  just  as  in  many 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


257 


These  depressions  were  near  the  margins  of  the  mesas.  The  construction 
of  their  villages  on  the  rocky  promontories  forced  the  Tusayan  builders  to 
sacrifice  the  traditional  and  customary  arrangement  of  the  kivas  within  the 
house  inclosed  courts  of  the  pueblo,  in  order  to  obtain  properly  depressed 
sites. 

"In  such  cases  the  broken  out  recesses  in  the  upper  rocks  have  been 
walled  up  on  the  outside,  roughly  lined  with  masonry  within,  and  roofed 
over  in  the  usual  manner.  In  many  cases  the  depth  of  these  rock  niches 
does  not  project  above  the  level  of  the  mesa  summit,  and  its  earth-covering 
is  indistinguishable  from  the  adjoining  surface  except  for  the  presence  of 
the  box-like  projection  of  masonry  that  surrounds  a  trap  door  and  its  ladder. 
Examples  of  such  subterranean  kivas  may  be  seen  at  Wai  pi  and  elsewhere. 
Even  when  the  kiva  was  placed  in  the  village  courts  or  close  to  the  houses, 
naturally  depressed  sites  were  still  sought  in  conformity  to  a  general  plan 
of  ancient  practice.  The  kivas  were  supposed  to  perpetuate  the  tradition 
of  the  creation,  and  the  underground  chambers  symbolized  the  caves 


FLOOR    OF    THE    KIVA. 


through  which  the  ancestors  of  the  race  passed  on  their  way  to  the  surface. 
The  native  explanation  is  as  follows  :  In  the  floor  of  the  typical  kiva  is  a 
sacred  cavity  called  Sipapu,  through  which  comes  the  beneficent  influence 
of  the  deities  or  powers  invoked.  According  to  the  accounts  of  some  of 
the  old  men,  the  kiva  was  constructed  to  inclose  this  srcred  object,  and 
houses  were  built  on  every  side  to  surround  the  kiva  and  form  its  outer  wall, 
In  earlier  times,  too,  so  the  priests  relate,  people  were  more  devout,  and 
the  houses  were  planned  with  their  terraces  fronting  upon  the  court,  so  that 
the  women  and  children  and  all  the  people  could  be  close  to  the  masked 
dancers  as  they  issued  from  the  kiva.  The  spectators  filled  the  terraces, 
and  sitting  there  they  watched  the  dancers  dance  in  the  court,  and  the 
women  sprinkled  meal  upon  them  while  they  listened  to  their  songs.  Other 
old  men  say  the  kiva  was  excavated  in  imitation  of  the  original  house  in  the 
interior  of  the  earth,  where  the  human  family  were  created,  and  from  which 
they  climbed  to  the  surface  of  the  ground  by  means  of  a  ladder.  The  hatch 
way  is  also  constructed  after  a  fixed  plan.  Near  the  center  of  the  kiva  two 
short  timbers  are  laid  across  the  beams  about  five  feet  apart,  leaving  an 
open  space  of  about  five  by  seven  feet  in  the  roof  or  ceiling.  The  hatchway 
is  then  raised  to  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  over  the  top  of  it  short 
timbers  are  placed,  one  end  higher  than  the  other,  so  as  to  form  a  slope  ; 
upon  these  timbers  stone  slabs  are  laid  for  cover,  leaving  an  open  space 


258 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


about  2x4^  feet,  which  is  the  only  outlet  for  the  kiva.  The  reason  for  this 
construction  of  the  hatchway  is  to  give  more  height  to  the  room  above  the 
fire,  which  is  always  placed  immediately  beneath  the  hatchway.  The  roof 
being  finished,  a  floor  of  stone  flags  is  laid  and  at  one  end  is  raised  a  plat 
form  some  ten  or  twelve  inches  high,  extending  about  one-third  the  length 
of  the  kiva,  and  terminating  in  an  abrupt  step  just  before  coming  under  the 
hatchway.  (See  Figute.)  On  the  edge  of  the  platform  rests  a  long  ladder, 
which  leans  against  the  higher  side  of  the  hatchway  and  projects  ten  or 
twelve  feet  in  the  air.  Upon  this  platform  the  women  or  visitors  sit  when 
admitted  to  witness  any  of  the  ceremonies,  just  as  the  women  stand  on  the 
house  terraces  to  witness  a  dance,  and  do  not  step  into  the  court.  In  the 
main  floor  a  shallow  pit,  about  a  foot  square,  made  for  a  fireplace,  is  located 
immediately  under  the  hatchway,  and  is  usually  two  to  three  feet  from  the 
edge  of  the  second  level  of  the  floor.  Across  the  end  of  the  kiva  on  the 


OPENING    TO    THE    KIVA. 

main  floor,  a  ledge  of  mason»y  is  built,  usually  about  two  feet  high  an  done 
foot  wide,  which  serves  as  a  shelf  for  fetiches  and  other  paraphernalia  du 
ring  stated  observances.  In  this  bench  or  ledge  is  a  small  niche  or  opening 
which  is  called  the  katcina  house,  tor  the  masks  are  placed  in  it  when  not 
used  by  the  dancers.  This  is  called  the  altar  end  of  the  house. 

In  the  main  floor  of  the  kiva  there  is  a  cavity  about  a  foot  deep  and 
eight  or  ten  inches  across,  which  is  usually  covered  with  a  short,  thick  slab 
of  cottonwood,  whose  upper  surface  is  level  with  the  floor.*  Through  the 
middle  of  this  short  plank  and  immediately  over  the  cavity,  a  hole  of  two 
or  two  and  c  ne-half  inches  in  diameter  is  bored.  This  hole  is  tapered,  and 
is  accurately  fitted  with  a  wooden  plug,  the  top  of  which  is  flush  with 
the  surface  of  the  plank.  The  plank  and  the  cavity  usually  occupy  a  posi 
tion  in  the  main  floor  of  the  kiva.  This  feature  is  the  Sipapu,  the  place  of 
the  gods,  and  the  most  sacred  portion  of  the  ceremonial  chamber.  Around 
this  spot  the  fetiches  are  set  during  a  festival.  It  typifies  also  the  first, 


*  The  figures  illustrate  the  general  plan  of  building  the  roof,  ceiling,  walls,  floors,   fireplace 
seats  or  ledges,  and  the  openings  or  place  of  entrance  of  the  modern  kivas. 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE    OF   THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  259 

world  of  the  Tusayan  genesis  and  the  opening  through  which  the  people 
first  emerged.  It  is  frequently  spoken  of  at  the  present  time." 

"The  essential  structural  features  of  the  kivas  above  described  are  re 
markably  similar,  though  the  illustrations  of  types  have  been  selected  at 
random.  Minor  modifications  are  seen  in  the  positions  of  many  of  the  fea 
tures,  but  a  certain  general  relation  between  the  various  constructional  re 
quirements  of  the  ceremonial  room  is  found  tD  prevail  throughout  all  the 
villages. 

"  The  consecration  of  the  kiva  is  also  significant.  When  all  the  work  is 
finished,  the  kiva  chief  prepares  a  "baho"  and  "feeds  the  house,"  as  it  is 
termed  ;  that  is,  he  thrusts  a  little  meal,  with  piki  crumbs,  over  one  of  the 
roof  timbers,  and  in  the  same  place  inserts  the  end  of  the  baho.  As  he  does 
this,  he  expresses  the  hope  that  the  roof  may  never  fall  and  that  sickness 
and  other  evils  may  never  enter  the  kiva.  It  is  difficult  to  elicit  an  intelli 
gent  explanation  of  the  theory  of  the  baho  and  the  prayer  ceremonies  in 
either  kiva  or  house  construction.  The  baho  is  a  prayer  token  ;  the  peti 
tioner  is  not  satisfied  by  merely  speaking  or  singing  his  prayer  ;*he  must 
have  some  tangible  thing  upon  which  to  transmit  it.  He  regards  his  prayer 
as  a  mysterious,  impalpable  portion  of  his  own  substance,  and  hence  he 
seeks  to  embody  it  in  some  object,  which  thus  becomes  consecrated. 

"  The  prayer  plume,  or  '  Baho,'  consisting  of  four  small  feathers  attached 
to  willow  twig,  is  inserted  in  the  roof  of  the  kiva  in  order  to  obtain  the  recog- 
nation  of  the  powers.  They  are  addressed  to  the  chiefs  who  control  the 
paths  taken  by  the  people  after  coming  up  from  the  interior  of  the  earth — a 
yellow  to  the  yellow  cloud  and  to  the  west ;  a  blue  feather  to  the  blue  cloud 
and  to  the  god  of  the  south  ;  a  red  feather  to  the  red  cloud  and  to  the  east  ;  a 
white  feather  to  the  white  cloud  and  to  the  north.  Two  separate  feathers 
are  addressed — one  to  the  zenith,  the  invisible  space  of  the  above,  and  to 
the  nadir,  the  god  of  the  interior  of  the  earth  and  the  maker  of  the  germs 
of  life. 

The  shape  oi  the  kivas  varied  with  the  different  tribes  in  the 
different  districts,  each  tribe  had  myths  traditions  and 
customs  peculiar  to  itself.  With  the  Cliff  Dwellers  the  style  was 
as  we  now  see  to  build  it,  in  a  circular  shape  with  ledges  and 
piers.  This,  however,  was  modified  and  changed  so  as  to  place 
a  circular  roof  in  a  solid  square  block  of  stone — the  corners  being 
fill  ed  in  with  rubble.  The  entrance  in  both  of  these  was 
from  above,  through  the  roof. 

There  is  a  third  form  found  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
which  consists  of  a  circular  tower — sometimes  built  in  one  and 
sometimes  two  stories — the  interior  divided  into  a  series  of  cells 
arranged  in  a  circle,  with  a  circle  in  the  center  for  the  fire,  the 
cells  uggesting  that  certain  ceremonies  unknown  to  us  were  cel 
ebrated.  A  fourth  way  of  building  the  kiva  is  the  one  which 
iswell  known  from  the  specimen  seen  on  the  Gila,  and  which 
some  think  was  used  as  a  temple  if  not  as  a  kiva,  the  system  of 
worship  being  different  from  any  other.  All  of  these  different 
shaped  kivas  have  been  studied  with  the  idea  of  tracing  the  line 
of  development  from  the  original  rude  hut  to  the  conical  stone 
estufa,  and  from  this  to  the  square  structure,  and  finally  to  the 
two-story  temple,  each  stage  of  development  and  each  new  shape 
of  the  temple  having  produced  a  new  form  of  building. 

A  still  more  fruitful  line  of  study  would  be  to  compare  these 
religious  houses  with  the  various  structures  found  in  Europe 


?6o  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

such  as  the  open  air  temples,  or  Cromlechs,  the  square  tombs  or 
Dolmens,  the  circular  towers  and  the  conical  treasure  houses,  and 
notice  their  correlation  to  the  religious  system  in  vogue,  and  how 
thoroughly  each  particular  stage  of  progress  is  exhibited  by  them. 
We  would  say,  however,  that  nowhere  in  the  world  has  there 
been  exactly  such  a  religious  house  as  the  kiva  is,  and  nowhere 
has  there  appeared  any  such  form  of  worship  or  system  of  my 
thology  as  was  introduced  in  it.  The  structure  is  as  unique  as 
the  system  itself,  and  both  together  serve  to  make  the  Cliff  dwell- 
t  rs  and  the  Pueblos,  their  successors,  a  very  remarkable  people, 
though  no  more  remarkable  than  the  mound  builders  on  one 
side  or  the  ancient  Mexicans  on  the  other. 

IV.     In  reading  the  descriptions  of  these  estufas   and  their 

furnishings,  one  needs  to  asso 
ciate  their  different  parts  with 
|  the   myths  which  are  still   told 


TO-YO-A-LA-NA,  THE  SACRED  MOUNTAIN  OF  THE  ZUNIS. 

by  the  aborigines  of  the  great  plateau  ;  but  he  needs  to  remem 
ber  that  the  myths  vary  in  their  character,  as  much  as  do  the  estufas 
for  those  which  are  told  by  the  Navajoes  bring  one  class  ot 
divinities  into  prominence,  and  those  told  by  the  Zunis 
another,  those  by  the  Apaches  still  another,  each  tribe  hav 
ing  its  own  pantheon  and  as  well  as  its  own  mythology. 

It  will  also  be  noticed  that  while  the  tribes  regarded  the 
mountains  and  the  lakes  as  the  homes  of  their  divinities,  yet 
each  had  its  own  Olympus,  or  rather  its  own  group  of  mountains 
in  which  the  divinities  were  supposed  to  dwell — the  four  promi 
nent  peaks  always  being  pointed  out  as  constituting  their 
abode.  It  cannot  be  asertained  whether  the  Cliff  Dwellers  wor 
shipped  the  mountain  divinities,  as  did  the  Navajoes,  or  the 
personified  divinities,  such  as  the  Zunis  now  worship,  but  they 
undoubtedly  peopled  the  scene  with  beings,  which  were  real 
to  them,  and  which  furnished  even  more  sense  of  power  and 
protection. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  scenes  with  which  they 
were  surrounded  were  very  remarkable  and  they  must  have 
had  a  great  influence  over  their  superstitious  minds.  They 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE    OF   THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


261 


could  not  have  climbed  to  their  strongholds  in  the  sides  of  the 
cliffs  without  feeling  that  their  fields  were  liable  to  depredations. 
There  must  have  been  a  sense  of  helplessness  amid  all  these 
dangers.  The  scenery  was  also  likely  to  impress  them  with  a 
sense  of  awe  wherever  they  went.  All  of  the  travelers  have 
spoken  of  the  many  points,  where  distant  views  can  be  gained 
— filling  the  mind  with  a  sense  of  grandeur  and  beauty.  Others 
have  spoken  of  the  views  which 
are  presented  by  the  deep  canons. 
We  may  judge  from  the  myths, 
which  are  extant  among  the  Nava 
joes,  what  a  strange  effect  the  col 
ors  of  the  rocks  and  the  sky  had 
upon  their  minds.  Those  colors 
were  by  the  Navajoes  embodied  in 
their  sand  paintings  and  made  to 
show  the  drapery  with  which  the 
mountain  and  sky  divinities  were 
clothed.  The  figures  contained  in 
the  sand  paintings  are  explained 
by  the  myths  which,  are  extant 
among  different  tribes,  such  as  the 
Navajoes,  the  Sias,  Zunis  and  Mo- 
quis  or  Tusayans.  Their  divinities 
were  very  much  alike  in  their  char 
acter,  all  having  sprung  from  an 
original  pair,  though  theirbirth  and 
their  activities  weie  within  the  re 
gion  which  the  tribe  called  its  own. 

The  nature  powers  were  per 
sonified  by  each  of  the  tribes. 
The  clouds,  the  mountains,  the 
lightnings,  the  plants,  the  sun 
beams  and  the  spray,  all  were 
represented  as  supernatural  beings, 
who  were  clothed  with  beautiful 
colors  similar  to  those  of  the  sky 
and  rocks  and  the  sunlight. 
Shells,  crystals  and  mosses  were 
used  to  decorate  the  persons  of 
their  gods  —  and  all  were  repre 
sented  by  their  sand  paintings,  the  myths  which  are  still  told, 
giving  an  explanation  of  the  paintings.  It  is  interesting  to 
take  these  myths  and  compare  them  with  one  another,  and 
with  those  told  by  other  nations,  Greeks,  Scandinavians  and 
Hindoos. 

There  was  in  all  a  first  pair,  but  generally  two  brothers  are 
very  prominent  and  serve  as  the  chief  divinities.  These  broth 
ers  among  the  Navajoes  have  the  strange  names,  Hasjelti  and 
Hostjoghon,  They  were  born  on  the  mountain  where  the 


A    NAVAJO       (  C  D. 


262 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


clouds  meet,  from  the  union  of  the  sun-god  and  the  shell- 
woman.  These  were  the  great  "  Song-makers."  They  gave 
songs  and  prayers  to  the  mountains,  and  clothed  the  mountains 
with  the  colors  and  clouds  which  they  now  bear.  They  float 
on  the  sun-beams  which  are  arranged  into  a  raft  in  the  form  of 
a  cross  and  which  has  the  different  colors  of  the  rainbow,  but 
edged  with  the  foam  of  the  ocean.  They  visited  the  different 
mountains  :  first,  they  visited  Henry  Mountain  in  Utah,  and 
gave  to  it  songs  and  prayers,  and  gave  to  it  the  color  it  bears. 
They  next  went  to  Sierra  Blanca  in  Colorado,  and  gave 

it  songs  and  prayer 
and  a  clothing  of  white, 
with  two  eagle  plumes. 
From  here  they  went  to 
San  Mateo  (Mt.  Taylor) 
and  gave  it  songs  and 
prayers,  and  dressed  it  in 
turquoise.  (This  is  the 
color  the  mountain  now 
has.)  They  next  went  to 
San  Francisco  Mountain 
in  Arizona,  and  dressed  it 
in  abalone  shells  with  two 
eagle  plumes — (Clouds 
which  float  above  the 
peaks)  and  gave  it  songs 
and  prayers.  They  then 
went  to  the  Ute  Moun 
tain  and  dressed  it  in 
black  beads  with  two 

eagle  plumes  on  its  head.  Hasjelti  is  the  great  mediator.  He 
communicates  through  feathers,  and  to  him  the  most  important 
prayers  are  addressed. 

He  is  represented  in  the  sand  paintings  as  clothed  in  a  white 
garment,  wearing  white  moccasins  and  having  on  his  head  white 
eagle  plumes  trimmed  with  fluffy  down  from  the  eagle's  breast 
and  carrying  in  his  hand  the  squirrel  bag.  He  is  attended  by 
certain  gods,  which  are  called  Naaskidi.  These  are  hunch 
backed;  but  their  backs  represent  the  black  clouds  and  so  are 
black, streaked  with  linesof  white  sunlight  and  trimmed  with  white 
feathers.  They  bear  a  lightning  staff  in  their  hand  which  is 
their  great  ensign  of  power. 

In  many  of  the  sand  paintings  there  are  gods  which  stand 
upon  a  cross,  making  it  to  resemble  the  Suastika.  They  are 
surrounded  by  the  humanized  rainbow.  They  watch  over  the 
plants  which  draw  their  sustenance  from  the  central  waters. 
They  near  around  their  bodies,  skirts  of  red  sunlight  adorned 
with  sunbeams.  They  have  ear  pendants,  armlets  and  bracelets 
of  turquoise  and  coral.  Their  arms  and  legs  are  black,  but 


A    ZUN1    SKY    GOD. 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


263 


streaked  with  white,  symbolizing  the  zigzag  lightning  across  the 
black   clouds.     In    one   case,  four  goddesses  are  attended   with 
four  plants — the  cornstalk   and    the  four  plants   make  a  double 
cross,  the  plants  one  and  the  goddesses   another — eight  arms  to 
one  cross.     These   are   all   colored  and    represent  the  different 
points  of  the  sky;  that  on   the  east  is  white  and  has  by  her  side 
the  white  cornstalk  ;  the  god 
dess   of  the    south    is    blue, 
and  has  by  her   side   a   blue 
beanstalk  ;    the  one   on    the 
west  is  yellow  and  has  a  yel 
low  pumpkin    vine    by    her 
side  ;  the  body  of  the   god 
dess   of   the   north   is   black 
and  has    the  black    tobacco 
by    her    side.      These   sand 
paintings   were  made  by  the 
Navajoes  and  show  the  relig 
ion  of  that  tribe  which  con 
sisted  in  the  worship  of  the 
mountain  divinities.     It    dif 
fered    from    the    religion    of  ZUNI  SYMBOLS. 
the  Zunis,  the  Sias  and  the 

Tusayans  who  worshipped  the  sky  and  cloud  divinities  and  rep 
resented  them  differently.  It  appears  that  the  Navajoes  rarely 
gave  wings  to  their  gods  or  goddesses,  but  generally  represented 

them  as  sailing  upon  rafts  of  sun 
beam  s  while  the  Zunis  gave  wings  to 
thei,  gods  and  placed  turreted  caps 
on  tneir  heads,  though  the  human 
ized  rainbow  generally  spanned  the 
sky  above,  and  the  lightning  hurler 
was  below.  They  are  bird  men,  but 
are  attended  by  animal  gods.  They 
had  not,  however,  reached  that  stage 
in  whieh  personal  anthropomorphic 
gods  were  worshipped  as  they  were 
in  Central  America  and  Mexico. 

Now,  the  question  arises,  which 
form  of  religion  did  the  Ciiff-Dwell- 
ers  possess  ?  Was  it  that  of  the 
Navajoes  which  consisted  in  the 

worship  of  the  mountain  divinities  or  that  of  the  Zunis,  which 
consisted  in  the  worship  of  the  water  divinities  ?  In  answer 
to  this,  one  can  only  refer  to  the  symbols  which  are  found  upon 
the  rocks  near  the  Cliff-Dwellings.  Thus  far  no  image,  with 
knife-bladed  wings  has  been  found  either  inscribed  upon  the 
rocks  or  the  pottery  relics  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  nor  has  there 


ZUNI    CLOUD    BASKET 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


humanized  goddesses   standing  on    crosses   or 
not  even  the  O-mo-wuh,  which  is  the  symbol  of 


been  seen  any 
rafts,  and  as  yet 
the  rain  cloud. 

Tins   winged   figure  called  the 


Priesthood  of  the  Bow,"  is 
very  suggestive. 
It  reminds  us  of 
the  gods  of  the 
Assyrians,  many 
of  whom  have 
birds'  heads  and 
wings.  It  also 
reminds  us  of  the 
Egyptian  symbol 
of  the  winged 
globe,  as  the  head 
is  like  a  disk  and 
the  wings  are  al 
ways  spread. 
There  are  winged 
figures  among 
the  tribes  on  the 
northwest  coast. 
Yehl,  the  chief 
god,  is  a  bird 
with  wings  out 
spread,  which 
contends  with 
the  whale. 

The  Dakota 
and  Algonkin 
tribes  also  had  as 
their  chief  divin 
ity,  a  thunder- 
bird,  who  was  a 
sky- god,  but  he 
was  the  eternal 
foe  to  the  serpent 
who  was  a  water- 


CLIFF-DWELLERS    SYMBOLS. 


god.     The  Zuni- 
bird  -  god      was, 

sometimes,  a  friend  to  the  serpent-^od,  as  both  were  united  in 
bringing  the  rain  clouds  which  water  the  earth  and  so  help  the 
crops.  The  Zunis  have  also  symbols  of  the  water  animals,  frogs 
and  lizards  and  tad-poles,  as  is  shown  in  the  cuts.  As  to  the 
divinities  of  the  ClifT-Dwellers  there  are  few  means  of  learning 
about  them  except  as  we  study  the  rock  inscriptions,  and  the 
symbols  contained  in  them.  There  are  few  symbols  which  re 
semble  those  found  elsewhere,  such  as  the  suastika  which  is  the 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE    OF    THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


265 


symbol  of  the  revolving  sky,  the  coil  which  is  the  symbol  of  the 
whirlwind,  the  cross  with  arrows  which  is  like  a  weather-vane, 
as  it  shows  the  cardinal  points,  the  consecutive  circles  and  the 
crescents  which  are  symbols  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  also  the 
circle  with  crooked  rays  which  is  the  squash  flower.  There  are 
in  the  inscriptions  many  nondescript  figures  ;  as  for  instance, 
snakes  with  human  heads  and  arms ;  lizards  w  th  serpents  for 


ROCK    INSCRIPTIONS    IN    ARIZONA. 

legs  ;  centipedes  with  tapering  bodies ;  circles  with  lightning 
serpents  issuing  from  them  ;  lizards  with  claws  projecting  from 
the  head,  reminding  us  of  some  of  the  figures  found  on  the 
Maya  codices ;  serpents  with  legs  and  circles  for  bodies  and 
human  heads.  These  are  all  represented  in  the  cut  which  con 
tains  a  selection  from  the  different  rock  inscriptions.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  there  is  no  rain  symbol,  called  the  O  mo-wuh,  nor  is 
there  any  cross  with  human  figurjs  on  them,  nor  even  any 
prayer  plumes,  but  there  are  many  human  figures.  The  nearest 
approach  to  any  known  symbol  is  found  in  the  concentric  circles 


266  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

which  are  colored  after  the  usual  colors  of  the  cardinal  points, 
and  the  great  number  of  human  hands  also  colored.  The  most 
that  we  can  say  is,  that  those  animals  which  generally  are  asso 
ciated  with  water,  such  as  snakes,  lizards,  frogs,  centipedes,  dra 
gon-flies,  and  water-skates,  are  very  numerous,  thus  showing 
that  the  water  was  symbolyzed  rather  than  the  sky.  Still  we 
may  say  that  .here  is  considerable  resemblance  between  these 
rock  inscriptions  and  those  found  at  Oakley  Springs,  Arizona, 
as  the  same  animals  may  be  recognized  in  each. 

In  the  Arizona  inscriptions,  the  serpents  seem  to  be  uncoiling 
from  the  sky  and  descending  to  the  earth,  thus  symbolizing  the 
rain,  while  the  coils  near  by  symbolize  the  whirlwind  and  the 
looped  squar  .  above  symbolizes  the  four  parts  of  the  sky,  the 
same  as  it  does  in  the,shell  gorgets  found  in^the  mounds  of  stone 
graves  of  Tennessee. 

Figures  of  snakes  are  very  common  among  the  pictographs 
on  the  Mesa,  near  the  Moqui  villages.  One  of  the-e  is  ten  feet 
long.  The  head  is  triangular,  with  two  projecting  tonguer. 
The  most  remarkable  specimen  is  one  which  is  associated  with 
other  symbols  of  the  sun,  of  the  clouds  and  rain.  In  this  snake 
there  are  six  udders  which  symbolyze  the  legend,  that  all  the 
water  and  blood  of  the  earth  come  from  the  breast  of  the  great 
serpent.  The  neck  and  body  are  decorated  with  parallel  lines, 
and  arrows,  the  duck's  foot  and  frog's  foot  which  resemble  those 
found  in  the  s  rpent  symbol  in  Mexico. 

There  are  rock  paintings  on  the  Potrera  Chetro  where  the 
Delight  maker  or  Medicine  man  is  represented  as  dancing  with 
a  serpent  erect  in  front  of  him  Mr.  Gunckel  also  describes  the 
shrines  and  boulder  sites  in  which  the  Serpent  is  represented  in 
various  attitudes  and  along  with  the  serpent  many  other  sym 
bols.  These  shrines  were  places  where  the  dances  occur  and 
where  the  mythologies  are  depicted  upon  the  walls.  One  such 
shrine  is  underneath  a  huge  boulder,  around  which  was  a  wall 
built  in  a  circle.  Within  the  circle  and  underneath  the  boulder 
were  rock  inscriptions  which  rep  rented  animal  figures,  serpents 
and  various  symbols.*  A  cave  t,wn  is  described  by  Mr.  Gunckel 
as  having  many  symbolic  figures ;  the  fo  lowing  is  the  descrip 
tion  : 

"  It  was  situated  in  a  wild  and  beautiful  spot,  shut  in  on  all  sides  by 
high  sandstone  cliffs  except  at  a  narrow  entrance  ;  and  the  foliage  ;s  al 
most  tropical  in  its  luxuriance  consisting  of  the  cactus  of  gigantic  size, 
grass  and  flowering  plants,  studded  he;e  and  there  with  stunted  cedars  and 
pinons,  Back  of  the  houses  was  a  spring  of  delicious  cold  water  which 
issued  from  under  the  heavy  sandstone  ledge  and  formed  a  water  reservoir 
in  the  cave  town  which  is  a  rare  and  valued  thing  in  this  arid  country.  The 
walls  of  the  cavern  are  covered  with  picture  writings,  the  most  common  of 
which  represent  the  human  hand  painted  in  red,  white  and  yellow.  In  an 
other  cave  were  also  circles  representing  targets,  painted -in  colors;  also 
the  figures  of  serpents,  coiled,  or  springing  or  crawling;  alro  circles  and 

*This  village  is  represented  in  the  cut  of  "  Cold  Spring  Cave." 


RELIGIOUS  LIFE    OF   THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  267 

snakes  combined,  symbolizing  the  lightning  dart  ;  also  the  figure  of  a  bow 
and  arrow  strung  to  shoot  ;  these  are  represented  in  the  cut.  Among  the 
specimens  of  art  are  fragments  of  bowls,  cups,  pegs,  and  pitcheis,  and  very 
few  specimens  are  found  that  are  not  painted,  or  covered  with  raised  fig 
ures.  Among  the  ornamental  designs  we  found  the  scroll,  the  fret,  and  the 
stepped  figure,  in  one  case  the  suastika 

Mr.  C.  F.  Bickford  speaks  of  rock  inscriptions  as  the  Rio  de 
Chelley. 

"  Hundreds  of  the  shapes  of  human  hands — the  autographs  perhaps  ot 
the  dwellers — are  found  adorning  the  now  inaccessible  roofs  of  some  of  the 
caves.  They  were  formed  by  thrusting  the  hand  into  the  liquid  coloring 
matter  and  slapping  it  with  fingers  extended  upon  tbe  rock.  Symbols  are 
frequent  ;  the  dragon  fly,  the  rainbow,  the  sun — objects  of  reverence  to  the 
living  Pueblos.  Few  animals  were  pictured. 

-  . 


SHRINE    AND    SUN     SYMBOLS    NEAR    ZUNI. 

Mrs.  Stevenson  describes  a  shrine  which  was  used  by  the  Sias 
in  wnich  the  snake  society  celebrated  its  ceremonials. 

"  It  was  a  rectangular  structure  of  logs,  which  had  a  rude  fire-place  in 
it,  and  two  niches  in  the  wall,  in  which  btood  two  vases.  The  vases  were 
decorated  with  snakes  and  cougars  upon  a  ground  of  creamy  tint.  The 
superstition  was  that  the  snake  was  the  great  divinity  and  guards  the  doors 
to  the  entrance  of  the  unseen  world.  There  are  also  six  societies,  com 
posed  of  the  snakes  of  the  cardinal  points,  having  special  influence  and 
special  emblems.  The  serpent  of  the  south  had  cloud  emblems  and  had 
influence  over  the  cloud  people  ;  the  serpents  of  the  east  which  were  painted 
with  the  crescent,  had  influence  with  the  sun  and  moon  ;  the  serpent  of  the 
heavens,  had  a  body  like  crystal  and  was  allied  to  the  sun  ;  the  serpent  of 
the  earth  was  spotted  over  like  the  earth,  and  had  special  relations  with  the 
earth.  This  people  have  their  traditions  about  the  sun  the  seven  stars,  the 
pleiades,  and  the  constellation  of  Orion.  They  say  that  the  cloud,  light 
ning,  thunder  and  rainbow  spirits,  followed  the  Sias  into  the  upper  world. 


268  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

These  make  their  homes  in  springs,  which  are  at  the  cardinal  points,  zenith 
and  Nadir,  and  are  in  the  hearts  of  the  mountains.  The  water  is  brought 
from  the  springs  at  the  base  of  the  mountains  in  gourds,  jugs  and  vases,  by 
the  men,  women  and  children  who  ascend  from  these  springs  to  the  base  of 
the  tree,  and  thence  through  the  heart  or  trunk  to  the  top  of  the  tree  which 
reaches  to  the  sky  (tinia);  they  then  pass  on  to  the  designated  point  to  be 
sprinkled.  The  cloud  people  are  careful  to  keep  behind  their  masks  and 
assume  different  forms,  but  they  labor  to  water  the  earth.  The  lightning 
people  shoot  their  arrows  to  make  it  rain  the  harder,  the  smaller  flashes 
coming  from  the  bows  of  the  children.  The  thunder  people  have  human 
forms  with  wings  of  knives,  and  by  flapping  these  wings  they  make  a  great 
noise.  The  rainbow  people  were  created  to  work  in  tinia  (the  sky),  to  make 
it  more  beautiful  for  the  people  of  the  earth  to  look  upon.  Not  only  the 
elders  make  the  beautiful  bows,  buc  the  children  assist  in  the  work.  They 
pictured  the  sun  as  a  warrior  wearing  a  shirt  of  dressed  deerskin,  and  leg 
gings  of  the  same,  reaching  to  his  thighs  ;  the  shirt  and  leggings  are 
fringed  ;  his  moccasins  are  also  of  deerskin  and  embroidered  in  yellow, 
red,  and  turquoise  beads  ;  he  wears  a  kilt  of  deerskin,  the  kilt  having  a 
snake  painted  upon  it ;  he  carries  a  bow  and  arrows,  the  quiver  being  of 
cougar  skin,  hanging  over  his  shoulder,  and  he  holds  his  bow  in  his  left 
hand  and  an  arrow  in  his  right  ;  he  still  wears  a  mask  which  protects  him 
from  view  of  the  people  of  the  earth.  An  eagle  plume  with  a  parrot  plume 
on  either  side  ornaments  the  top  of  the  mask,  and  an  eagle  plume  is  on 
either  side  of  the  mask  and  one  is  at  the  bottom  ;  the  hair  around  the  head 
and  face  is  red  like  fire,  and  when  it  moves  and  shakes,  the  people  cannot 
look  closely  at  the  mask  ;  it  is  not  intended  that  they  should  observe  close 
ly  and  thereby  know  that  instead  of  seeing  the  sun  they  see  only  his  mask; 
the  heavy  line  encircling  the  mask  is  yellow  and  indicates  rain." 

The  homage  paid  by  the  Zuni  to  water  is  illustrated  by  the 
symbols  at  the  sacred  spring  of  the  Zunis  near  the 
ruins  of  the  Ojo  Pescado  and  the  present  Pueblo  Zuni. 

"  It  was  between  seven  and  eight  feet  in  diameter  and  around  it  a  low 
circular  wall  15  x  20  feet  across  has  been  raised.  The  spring  is  cleared  out 
every  year  when  an  offering  is  made  to  the  spirit  of  the  fountain  of  one  or 
more  water-pots  which  are  placed  on  the  wall,  One  of  these  is  described 
as  follows  :  its  capacity  is  about  a  gallon  ;  a  fine  border  line  has  been  drawn 
along  the  edge  and  oh  both  sides  of  the  rim,  homed  frogs  and  tadpoles 
alternate  on  the  inner  surface  of  the  turreted  edge  ;  larger  frogs  or  toads 
are  portrayed  within  the  body  of  the  vessel  and  the  crested  serpents  are 
also  placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel.  These  represent  the  animal  divini- 
lies  that  are  supposed  to  preside  over  the  springs.  Another  shrine  is  de 
scribed  by  Lieut.  Whipple  ;  it  seems  to  have  been  sacred  to  the  water 
deities.  The  high  priest  and  master  of  the  ceremonies  stands  in  the  midst 
of  it  ;  upon  the  ground  is  a  sacred  circle  and  in  this  are  twigs  and  arrow 
heads  trimmed  with  feathers,  with  threads  arranged  like  a  sn  ire  supposed 
to  be  an  invocation  for  rain.  In  the  midst  we  find  the  tablets  in  which  are 
crescents,  crosses  and  other  symbols,  all  of  which  show  the  regard  for  the 
nature  powers  and  the  sanctity  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars,  as  worthy  of 
adoration.'' 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  SOCIAL  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE 
CLIFF-DWELLERS. 

The  religious  life  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  was  the  subject  of  the 
previous  chapter.  Their  domestic  life  is  next  to  engage  our 
attention.  This  is  very  difficult  to  learn  about,  for  there  are  no 
records  to  give  us  information,  no  traditions  even  to  give  us 
hints,  and  very  few  relics  are  left  which  can  reveal  to  us  their 
domestic  life.  All  that  we  can  do  is  to  take  the  various  struc 
tures  which  remain,  examine  carefully  the  relics  which  have  been 
found  within  the  cliff-dwellings,  and  compare  the  structures 
with  those  which  are  still  occupied  by  the  Pueblos  farther  south, 
and  the  relics  found,  with  those  in  use,  and  make  out  from  these  a 
picture  which  shall  fit  into  the  framework  which  is  left. 

We  have  intimated  that  the  survivors  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers, 
or  at  least  their  descendants,  may  be  found  among  the  Pueb 
los,  and  the  more  we  study  the  subject,  the  more  thoroughly 
are  we  convinced  that  our  conjecture  is  true;  still  there  have 
been  so  many  changes  in  the  domestic  life  of  the  Pueblos  since 
the  advent  of  the  white  man — so  much  conformity  to  a  modern 
style  of  life — that  we  are  liable  to  be  misled  if  we  follow  these 
guides  too  closely. 

There  are,  to  be  sure,  the  same  domestic  utensils  in  use  now 
as  in  prehistoric  times;  the  same  contrivances  for  grinding  the 
meal,  for  baking  the  bread  ;  the  same  shaped  vessels  for  carrying 
water  and  holding  grain  ;  the  same  kind  of  looms  for  weaving 
garments  and  the  same  primitive  spindles  for  twisting  the  cotton 
fibres.  There  are  also  the  same  fashions,  or  styles,  of  wearing 
the  outside  garment — as  it  is  still  the  universal  custom  to  place 
it  over  the  right  shoulder  and  leave  the  left  arm  bare — though 
the  material  of  which  the  garment  is  now  made  differs  entirely 
from  that  which  was  common  before  the  advent  of  the  white  man. 
There  is  also  the  same  style  of  arranging  the  hair,  especially 
among  the  young  women.  The  fashion  still  is,  to  make  a  large 
puff  on  either  side  of  the  head.  There  have  been  but  few 
changes  in  the  religious  customs  of  the  people,  for  the  use  of  the 
prayer  plumes  at  the  dedication  of  houses  and  the  celebration  of 
the  dances,  the  wearing  of  the  same  hideous  masks  in  the 
dances,  the  girding  of  the  loins  with  the  same  woven  sashes,  and 
decorating  the  body  with  the  same  symbolic  colors,  still  con 
tinues.  The  greatest  changes  have  occurred  in  the  tools  used  in 
ordinary  employments,  for  the  introduction  of  domestic  animals 


270  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

has  brought  in  the  use  of  the  rude  solid  wheeled  cart,  and  has 
substituted  the  common  plow  for  the  prodding  stick  and  other 
contrivances  for  loosening  the  soil.  The  introduction  of  fire 
arms,  such  as  the  rifle  and  shot  gun,  has  done  away  with  the  bow 
and  arrow,  the  spear  with  the  stone  head,  the  throwing  stick  and 
the  war  club.  Great  changes  have  occurred  also  in  the  manner 
of  erecting  the  walls  and  fashioning  the  doors  of  the  ordinary 
buildings,  especially  the  style  of  decorating  the  inner  walls  of 
the  rooms,  as  the  symbols  and  ornaments  which  are  so  strik 
ing  in  the  ruined  houses  of  the  Cliff-Dwellersare  no  longer  found 
in  the  pueblos.  The  kivas,  or  sacred  chambers,  have  also  un* 
dergone  a  change.  The  circular  shape  has  been  abandoned,  and 
the  oblong,  rectangular  has  been  adopted.  It  is  uncertain  how 
long  the  "  Snake  Dance"  has  prevailed,  but  the  snake  symbol 
was  evidently  in  use  in  prehistoric  times,  and  it  is  probable  that 
this  and  other  religious  customs  which  now  prevail,  have  sur 
vived  from  prehistoric  times,  but  have  greatly  changed. 

If  we  bear  in  mind  these  changes,  and  are  careful  in  noticing 
those  things  which  are  peculiar  to  the  Pueblos,  and  which  are 
not  found  among  other  tribes  in  America,  it  will  be  safe  for  us 
to  take  these  as  clews  to  the  domestic  and  social  life,  and  per 
haps  even  the  religious  life,  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers;  We  do  not 
say  that  they  all  prevailed  in  those  northern  districts  where  the 
Cliff-Dwellers  had  their  homes,  but  there  are  so  many  tools 
found  among  the  cliff-dwellings,  so  many  symbols  inscribed  upon 
the  rocks,  so  many  fragments  of  woven  garments,  so  many 
strangely  decorated  pottery  vessels,  so  many  rudely  f  .shioned 
implements  of  wood  and  stone  which  resemble  those  still  in  use 
among  the  Pueblos,  that  we  are  inclined  to  take  them  as  the  key 
which  will  unlock  the  mysteries  which  are  still  hidden  away 
among  the  ruined  cliff-dwellings  of  the  north. 

It  seems  strange  that  so  much  mystery  should  hang  over 
dwellings  which  are  so  near  those  which  are  now  inhabited.  The 
valleys  of  the  San  Juan  and  its  tributaries,  the  Rio  de  Chelly, 
the  Dolores  and  the  Rio  Verde,  have  been  often  visited 
since  they  were'first  discovered  by  American  travelers.  Various 
expeditions  have  been  fitted  out  to  explore  the  ruins  and  gather 
relics,  but  many  problems  remain  unsolved.  There  is  the 
greatest  contrast  between  the  two  regions  ;  both  are  situated  in 
the  midst  of  the  great  plateau  and  form  important  parts  of  the 
air  continent,  which  arises  like  a  great  mansard  roof  above  the 
rest  of  the  continent ;  but  in  one  region  we  have  continued  sun 
shine  and  a  scene  which  is  enlivened  by  a  happy  and  contented 
people.  Here  the  voice  and  prattling  of  children  can  be  heard,  and 
laughter  often  rings  out  among  the  rooms  of  the  many  terraced 
buildings.  Young  and  old  cluster  together  upon  the  roofs; 
fathers  and  mothers  and  aged  grand-parents  mingle  with  youth 
and  make  each  village  lively  with  their  presence.  Every  house 


SICHUMOVI,  ONE  OF  THE  SEVEN  TUSAYAN  VILLAGES. 


COURT  AT  HANO — SHOWING  TERRACED  HOUSES  AND  OPENING 
TO  THE  KIVA. 


Hfe 

DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  273 

is  filled  with  a  thriving  life.  In  the  regions  not  so  very  faraway, 
there  are  deep  canyons  where  the  shadows  constantly  linger.  In 
their  midst  are  ancient  and  ruined  buildings  in  which  not  a 
voice  is  heard.  Silence  everywhere  prevails,  solitude  is  supreme. 
Darkness  even  lingers  in  the  sides  of  the  rockc.  The  black- 
winged  crow  sends  out  its  warning  cry  against  every  intruder 
into  its  dark  domain.  The  rustle  of  the  leaves  of  the  quaking 
ash  and  the  whispering  of  the  fir  trees  make  the  solitude  to  be 
felt.  Echoes  of  the  past  may  be  heard  in  these  strange  whisper* 
ings  in  the  air. 

The  contrast  could  not  be  greater  if  we  were  to  take  the  div 
ing  suit  on  board  of  some  great  war  vessel  and  plunging  over  the 
side,  go  down  into  the  depths  of  the  ocean  to  examine  the  wrecks 
which  lie  buried  deep  below  the  waters,  for  there  are  wrecks  in 
these  deep  valleys,  and  even  the  bodies  of  those  who  have 
perished  in  the  great  catastrophe  which  came  upon  the  people. 
The  framework  is  all  there,  but  every  sign  of  life  is  departed ; 
desolation  is  manifest  on  every  side.  Loneliness  is  the  sense 
which  creeps  in  upon  the  soil.  To  trace  the  domestic  life  and 
social  conditions  of  the  people  who  once  dwelt  in  these  deserted 
houses,  is  a  task  which  we  have  set  before  us.-  We  shall  use 
such  evidence  as  we  can  find. 

The  works  and  relics  of  the  cliff-dwellings  are  to  be  studied  in 
this  connection,  We  have  already  received  their  testimony  in  ref 
erence  to  the  military  life  and  religious  habits  of  the  people,  and 
have  found  many  things  that  were  suggestive.  It  may  be  that 
the  testimony  will  be  as  definite  in  reference  to  the  social  and 
domestic  life. 

I.  We  are  to  notice,  first:  That  the  architecture  of  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers  differs  from  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  globe;  though 
it  is  wonderfully  correlated  to  the  surroundings,  and  was  well 
adapted  to  the  lite  which  the  people  led.  The  situation  of  the 
houses  is  particularly  suggestive  of  the  life  which  was  led.  The 
following  is  a  description  of  a  series  of  houses  which  were  dis 
covered  by  one  of  the  last  expeditions  which  entered  that  region. 
It  was  written  by  Mr.  Louis  W.  Gunckel,  who  attended  the  expe 
dition  which  was  sent  out  by  the  Illustrated  American;  he,  alter 
traversing  the  upper  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Rio  San  Juan  as  far 
as  the  McElmo  and  Hovenweep,  went  on  farther  west  and  ex 
plored  the  box  canyons  which  line  the  sides  of  the  streams 
which  flow  from  the  west  eastward,  and  join  the  San  Juan  near 
the  Hovenweep.  These  ruins  have  not  been  described  before. 
They  resemble  the  ruins  of  the  Cliff- Dwellers  on  the  Mesa 
Verde.  They  differ  in  some  points — especially  in  the  fact  that  there 
are  so  many  ruined  towers  which  have  a  modern  look  to  them, 
and  certain  rock  shelters  which  were  probably  used  for  shrines 
and  places  of  religious  assembly — yet  the  surroundings  give  the 


274 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


idea  that  they  were  the  last  retreats  of  the  mysterious  people 
whom  we  call  Clifif- Dwellers. 

The  following  is  Mr.  Gunckel's  description  : 

Monarch's  Cave  is  situated  in  the  beautiful  Box  Canyon  near  Butler's 
Wash,  about  nine  miles  from  the  San  Juan.  The  canyon  is  about  one-half 
mile  in  length  and  presents  a  great  contrast  to  the  monstrous  and  desolate 
mesa  and  valley  outside.  Instead  of  stunted  sage  and  grease  wood  we 
find  a  luxurious  growth  of  wide  spread  cottonwood  trees,  beautiful  shrub 
bery,  flowering  plants,  and  fine. clear  water,  which  give  to  the  picturesque 
canyon  a  park-like  appearance.  One  coltonwood  tree  measured  fifteen 
feet  around  the  trunk. 

At  the  west  end,  the  highest  sand-stone  cliffs,  curved  in  with  graceful 
undulating  lines  which  came  close  togefher  at  the  front,  their  weathered 
surface  forming  a  large  cavern  about  100  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the 
canyon,  underneath  which  is  a  striking  series  of  cliff-houses,  which  from 
their  prominent  position  we  called  Monarch's  Cave,  The  cliff-hou,se  con 
tained  eleven  rooms  on  the  ground  floor;  one  of  which  remains  two  stories 
in  height.  They  are  accessible  on  the  north  side,  and  there,..by  footholds 
cut  by  the  builders  in  the  rocky,  sloping  ledge.  Judging  from  the  large 


MONARCH  S   CAVE. 

number  of  port-holes  in  the  ruin,  it  was  built  for  a  fortification.  In  one 
room  alone  we  counted  twenty-five  port-holes,  pointing  in  all  directions,  up 
and  down,  so  as  to  command  the  whole  canyon  below.  The  whole  aspect 
of  the  cave  is  one  of  defense  and  protection. 

Directly  under  the  cliff-houses,  at  the  bottom  of  the  canyon,  is  a  large 
spring,  measuring  thirty  feet  across  and  about  five  feet  deep  at  the  center. 
The  water  is  clear  and  cold  and  would  serve  as  an  excellent  supply  at  all 
times  of  the  year,  and  the  stream  which  flows  from  it  irrigates  the  whole 
canyon  to  the  east.  At  the  back  of  the  cave  is  a  little  spring  where  the 
water  trickles  down  the  rock  causing  a  thick  growth  of  moss,  ferns  and 
creeping  vines.  This  could  be  utilized  in  case  of  an  attack,  thus  obviating 
the  process  of  descending  to  the  large  cave  below.  The  method  of  roofing 
buildings  is  illustrated  in  these,  ruins.  Two  heavy  beams  are  laid  across 
the  top,  parallel  to  each  other,  for  foundation  to  the  roof.  A  layer,  three 
inches  thick,  made  of  small  sticks  one  inch  in  diameter,  is  laid  crosswise, 
then  a  layer  of  adobe  mud  three  inches  thick  packed  down  securely,  leav 
ing  the  impress  of  fingers  and  hands  in  the  mud. 

The  building  on  the  north  side  is  two  stories  high,  the  upper  story  is  in 
a  good  state  of  preservation,  though  the  floor  has  fallen  through,  The  en- 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  275 

trance  into  this  room  is  by  a  small  door  from  the  cave  side,  which  is  reach 
ed  by  walking  along  a  cedar  log,  laid  across  from  the  next  dwelling,  which 
served  as  a  passage-way  or  bridge.  Above  this  log  a  stone  protrudes  from 
the  building,  which  served  as  a  step  from  the  log  to  the  door  above.  A 
noticeable  fact  among  the  ruins  is  that  several  doors,  neatly  made,  have 
been  walled  up  as  if  a  sudden  attack  was  feared  and  greater  defense  was 
needed.  In  the  north  end  the  beams  and  rafters  and  small  sticks  for  the 
roof,  remain  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation,  dry  and  hard.  They  were  not 
smoky  and  greasy  as  in  other  pueblos. 

One  thing  in  this  cave  not  found  elsewhere,  is  that  the  walls  in  two  or 
three  rooms  are  composed  of  a  mixture  of  adobe  mud  and  small  round 
stones  and  sand.  They  are,  however,  hard  and  serviceable  and  in  a  good 
state  of  preservation. 

Five  hundred  feet  to  the  north  of  the  cave  is  a  small  round  tower 
about  six  feet  in  diameter,  which  served  as  a  watch  tower,  though  rudely 
constructed  and  without  plaster.  About  one-fourth  of  a  mile  east  is  a  series 
of  steps  cut  into  the  sard-stone  ledge.  By  using  these  one  is  able  to  reach 
the  top  of  the  mesa,  and  it  is  impossible  in  any  other  way. 

II.  There  are  other  features  besides  that  of  situation  of  the 
cliff-dwellings,  which  enable  us  to  understand  the  domestic 
life  and  social  status  of  the  people.  It  is  understood  that  the 
Cliff-Dwellers  were  the  same  people  who  built  the  pueblos 
which  are  in  ruins  in  the  vicinity,  but  for  a  long  time  they  were 
compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  sides  of  the  cliff  to  escape 
from  the  attacks  of  their  enemies,  who  invaded  their  houses, 
and  were  at  last  compelled  to  remove  altogether  from  the 
region  and  make  their  homes  with  other  tribes  farther  south. 
They  were,  even  while  dwelling  in  their  lofty  eyries,  in  that 
organized  communistic  state  which  required  compact  villages, 
or  pueblos,  for  its  truest  scope,  a  state  in  which  all  depart 
ments  of  life  and  all  the  grades  of  society  were  blended  togeth 
er,  though  the  domestic  life  seemed  to  be  the  most  prominent 
feature.  The  military,  religious,  social  and  domestic  life  em 
bodied  themselves  in  different  buildings  which  were  crowded 
into  the  sides  of  the  cliff,  each  one  having  its  own  province  and 
use.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  cliff-dwellings  were  divided  into 
apartments*  which  differed  from  one  another,  not  only  in  the 
situation  but  in  shape  and  character, — the  use  for  which  they 
were  erected  having  impressed  itself  upon  their  very  appearance. 
It  is  therefore  by  studying  the  various  structures  which  are 
found  in  these  cliff-villages  that  we  shall  learn  about  the 
domestic  life  of  the  people  as  we  have  already  learned  about 
their  religious,  their  military,  and  their  industrial  life.  It  may 
be  said  that  the  Cliff-Dwellers  lived  in  villages,  each  village 
being  a  repetition  of  every  other  and  being  made  up  of  the 
same  elements.  The  only  variation  was  in  the  relative  situa 
tion  and  in  the  adaptation  to  a  particular  location  in  which 
they  were  placed.  The  peculiarities  of  the  villages  consisted 
of  the  following: 

( I )  A  row  of  houses  were  built  on  the  front  of  a  ledge  close 
to  its  edge,  the  wall  being  a  continuation  of  the  precipice;  thus 

*The  towers  and  "Loop-Hole  Forts"  were  devoted  :to  military  purposes,  the  estufas  and 
shrines  to  icligious,  the  courts,  balconies  and  roofs  to  social,  the  houses  and  store-houses  to 
domestic,  and  the  cists  to  funereal. 


276 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


making  a  double  defense, — its  situation  in  the  sides  of  the  cliff 
and  the  dead  wall  making  them  to  resemble  fortresses.  (2) 
There  was  in  every  village  an  open  space  in  the  rear  of  the 
houses  which  answered  the  purpose  of  a  court,  a  street,  a  play 
ground  and  a  place  for  industrial  pursuits  such  as  weaving  and 
pottery  making;  the  doors  of  the  houses  opened  upon  this 
street,  and  the  terraces  of  the  houses  turned  toward  the  street, 
very  much  as  in  the  pueblos  they  were  turned  toward  the 
court.  (3)  There  was  in  every  village  a  series  of  kivas  or 
sacred  chambers  which  were  the  resorts  of  the  men,  day  and 
night.  These  kivas  were  often  in  front  of  the  houses  on  the 
sides  of  the  cliff,  but  were  sometimes  in  the  midst  of  the 
houses,  or  on  the  same  ledge  with  the  houses  but  to  one  side 
of  them.  (4)  There  were -always  in  connection  with  each 
village  one  or  more  towers,  which  were  places  of  resort  for 


TOWERS   ON   CLIFF    NEAR   BUTLER'S   WASH.* 

warriors,  and  which  served  for  the  defense  of  the  village. 
These  towers  were  frequently  on  the  very  ledge  with  the 
houses  and  were  so  situated  as  to  command  the  front  of  them, 
serving  as  a  defense  for  the  villages  and  as  a  citadel  for  the 
people — somewhat  as  a  garrison  does  in  modern  times.  These 
towers  were  sometimes  a  short  distance  from  the  villages  on 
the  cliff  above  or  on  the  valley  below,  but  were  always  so 
placed  as  to  give  an  extensive  view,  and  protect  the  village 
from  sudden  assault.  (5)  There  were  storehouses  or  caches 
connected  with  every  village.  These  were  often  placed  in  the 

•The  towers  represented  in  the  cuts  wer«  discovered  by  Mr  Louis  W.  Gunckel.  They  were 
situated  on  the  mesa  on  the  edge  of  a  clifl  near  a  box  canyon.  They  were  not  connected  with 
any  compact  village,  though  there  were  stone  houses  scattered  over  the  rocky  bluffs  in  the  rear, 
and  various  shrines  and  shelter  rocks  in  the  canyon  below.  One  of  these  was  a  tower  without  a 
window  and  with  a  single  door.  It  gave  the  idea  that  it  may  have  been  used  as  a  castle.  It  had 
this  peculiarity,  that  it  was  mainly  circular  but  had  one  side  rectangular,  and  was  called  the 
"One  Cornered  Tower."  The  doube  tower  was  near  this,  and  both  parts  were  built  with  much 
skill,  and  with  an  evident  design  of  defense.  It  is  about  the  only  locality  where  two-story  build 
ings  and  towers  are  scattered  over  the  bluffs,  but  taken  together  they  constitute  a  "straggling 
village."  Their  location  is  in  the  "  Ruin  Canyon,"  eight  miles  west  of  the  McElmo. 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  277 

niches  of  the  cliff  at  the  rear  of  the  houses,  but  sometimes  in 
openings  or  ledges  of  the  cliffs  above  or  below,  that  were 
easily  reached  from  the  houses.  (6)  In  connection  with  all 
cliff-villages  there  was  a  stairway  of  some  kind.  It  either 
consisted  of  a  series  of  handholds  cut  into  the  sides  of  the 
rocks  to  enable  the  people  to  climb  up  to  the  villages,  or  nar 
row  places  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks,  which  enabled  the 
people  to  climb  down  to  the  villages,  or  a  series  of  stone 
steps  which  went  up  the  cliff  part  way  and  were  supplemented 
by  ladders  or  other  contrivances.  In  a  few  cases  villages  were 
placed  on  inaccessible  ledges,  and  were  only  reached  by  ropes 
which  were  suspended  from  beams  which  projected  from  the 
houses,  and  were  climbed  by  the  people  who  made  their  refuge 
in  the  rocks.  (/)  There  was  a  spring  connected  with  every 
village.  This  was  either  situated  at  the  foot  or  side  of  the  cliff 
and  near  the  houses,  and  so  furnished  water  to  the  people. 
There  were  near  some  of  the  villages  reservoirs  which  were 
formed  by  building  walls  across  low  places  in  the  rocks, 
keeping  the  Water  back  from  flowing  into  the  canyon  or  stream 
below,  which  served  as  a  supply  of  water  in  dry  times.  ( 8  )  The 
evidence  is  increasing  that  there  were  irrigating  ditches  in  the 
valleys,  and  near  the  ditches  cornfields  and  places  where  beans 
and  squashes  were  raised.  Beside  these  there  were  garden 
plats  which  were  formed  by  making  terraces  in  the  sides  of 
the  cliff  and  depending  upon  the  dampness  in  the  rocks  for 
moisture  for  the  garden  stuff.  (9)  There  were  near  some  of 
the  villages  shelter  rocks  and  circular  walls  which  were  used 
for  dances  and  feast  grounds, and  there  were  other  places  used  for 
shrines,  and  near  the  shrines  were  many  symbols.  The  religious 
beliefs  of  the  people  are  seen  inscribed  upon  the  rocks.  (  10) 
There  were  inside  of  the  houses  various  decorations  and  orna 
ments  which  show  the  taste  of  the  people  who  dwelt  in  the 
villages.  These  were  probably  the  work  t  f  the  women,  though 
there  was  a  conventionality  among  them  which  suggest  a 
religious  symbolism — the  same  kind  of  symbolism  that  was  con 
tained  in  the  decorated  pottery.  (11)  There  were  also  fireplaces 
inside  of  the  rooms  which  suggest  comfort  even  when  the 
weather  was  cold  and  snow  was  upon  the  mountain's  and  in  the 
valleys.  (12)  There  were  contrivances  by  which  the  store 
houses  were  made  inaccessible  by  stone  doors  with  locks  made 
from  withes,  which  show  that  the  right  of  private  property  was 
not  always  respected  even  here.  Whole  villages  were  some 
times  protected  by  stone  doors,  which  were  set  into  the  nar 
row  passage-ways  and  barricaded  from  the  inside.  These 
stone  doors  made  the  villages  secure  but  when  they  were 
placed  in  the  doorways  of  the  rooms  they  made  them  very 
dark,  and  we  may  conclude  they  were  rarely  used.  (  13)  The 
most  significant  element  was  the  doorway  which  was  built  in 
the  shape  of  a  T ,  the  upper  part  being  wider  than  the  lower. 
The  object  of  this  was  to  allow  the  men  or  women  who  had 


278 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


loaded  themselves  with  bunches  of  cornstalks  or  with  vessels 
of  water  and  had  climbed  up  the  cliff,  to  enter  the  rooms  with 
out  taking  the  load  from  their  shoulders.  The  doors  were  not 
all  built  in  this  shape,  yet  there  are  enough  of  them  to  show 
that  this  feature  of  architecture  had  grown  out  of  necessities, 
though  it  was  retained  in  the  pueblos  long  after  the  people  had 
left  the  cliff- dwellings,  making  it  probable  that  at  least  some 
of  the  pueblos  were  erected  subsequent  to  the  cliff-dwellings. 
Here,  then,  we  have  the  alphabet  by  which  we  construct 
the  story  of  the  real  life  of  the  people.  Every  different  struc 
ture  which  is  situated 
i|  any  where  near  a  Cliff- 
Dweller's  village  may 
be  said  to  furnish  us  a 
clew  to  the  social  con 
ditions  which  existed. 
In  some  we  read  their 
military  skill,  in  others 
we  learn  about  their  re 
ligious  belief,  in  others 
we  recognize  their  in 
dustrial  pursuits,  in 
others  we  learn  about 
their  domestic  habits 
and  ways, in  still  others, 
we  learn  about  their 
amusements,  their  fes 
tivities  and  their  joys. 

The  scenery  which 
surrounded  the  villages 
needs  only  the  presence 
of  the  people  for  us  to 
rea<^  *n  i*  a^  *ke  forms 
of  life  ™hich  .Prevailed 
i  n  prehistoric  times. 
The  desire  for  defense 
was  the  first  and  chief 
motive  which  prevailed 
in  every  Cliff-Dweller's 
village.  This  is  seen  in 
the  situation  of  the  vil 
lages  and  in  the  location  of  the  houses.  It  is  seen  also  in  the 
presence  of  the  towers  and  the  loop-hole  forts,  and  in  the 
many  precautions  which  were  taken  against  sudden  assault, 
but  after  all,  it  was  the  home  rather  than  the  land  which  was 
defended;  and  the  military  skill  was  exercised  to  protect 
domestic  life.  The  home  was  the  chief  thing. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  condition  of  society  before,  it 
is  evident  that  when  enemies  began  to  threaten  the  people,  they 
were  driven  together  into  these  cliff-villages,  and  resorted  to 


DOORS  AND  WINDOWS— SPRUCE  PALACE. 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  279 

them  as  communal  houses  for  purposes  of  defense.  The  fam 
ily  may  have  been  separate  from  the  clan,  and  lived  sep 
arately,  but  incursions  by  neighboring  wild  tribes,  or  by  hostile 
neighbors,  and  constant  annoyance,  gradually  compelled  the 
removal  of  families  and  clans  to  villages  \vhich  were  more 
easily  defended,  and  forced  the  aggregation  of  various  related 
gentes  into  one  group. 

These  cliff-villages  were  filled  with  bands  of  refugees  who 
were  in  constant  fear  of  the  fierce  and  savage  people  who  were 
continually  invading  their  homes,  and  had  driven  them  into 
these  fastnesses  in  the  rocks.  It  seems  strange  that  the  peo 
ple  under  these  circum 
stances  could  have  re 
tained  any  culture  or 
refinement,  or  taste,  or 
skill,  and  the  wonder 
is  that  they  did  not  de 
generate  into  a  race  of 
savages  a  s  degraded 
and  as  rude  as  the  peo 
ple  who  hunted  them. 
And  yet,  after  all,  there 
is  such  a  contrast  be 
tween  the  homes  which 
they  had  left  and  the 
rude  huts  which  were 
still  occupied  by  the 
tribes  which  a  t  last 
drove  them  from  their 
fortresses,  that  we  are 
compelled  to  say  that 
they  occupied  a  differ 
ent  social  status  and 
were  much  superior  to 
them  in  every  way,  and 
especially  in  their  do 
mestic  habits  and  home 
life. 

III.  We  will  proceed 
now  to  describe  some 
o  f  the  evidences  o  f 

taste  and  culture  which  may  be  found  in  the  architecture  of 
the  Cliff-Dvvellers.  We  call  it  culture,  even  if  it  was  rude  and 
barbaric,  for  the  word  is  always  to  be  taken  in  a  comparative 
sense.  The  very  fact  that  stone  houses  were  used  to 
shelter  the  people  and  that  these  houses  had  doors  and  win 
dows,  and  floors,  and  roofs,  is  sufficient  to  prove  their  superior 
ity.  We  do  not  need  to  compare  these  with  our  modern 
houses  to  prove  that  they  were  superior  to  the  savages,  for  the 


PLASTERED    PILLAR    IN    CLIFF    PALACE. 


280  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

very  fact  that  they  had  them,  even  in  rude  primitive  forms, 
would  show  their  superiority.  Of  course,  it  is  not  expected 
that  a  Cliff-Dweller  would  build  arches  into  his  houses,  or  that 
he  would  use  the  column  as  an  architectural  ornament,  for 
there  are  not  many  modern  houses  that  have  these.  There 
were  not  even  piers  or  lintels  in  these  houses, but  in  their  place 
may  be  seen  the  rude  masonry  at  the  sides  of  the  doors  and 
the  small  poles  or  sticks  above  the  doors.  Still  every  explorer 
has  noticed  the  skill  and  taste  with  which  the  walls  were  laid 
up,  and  the  beauty  which  was  given  to  them  by  the  rows  of 
stones  which  constituted  the  layers,  and  by  the  dressing  of  the 
stones  so  as  to  make  the  walls  suited  for  the  round  towers  or 
the  square  buildings,  thus  showing  that  these  ancient  houses 
were  superior  in  these  respects  to  the  modern  pueblos  which 
are  still  standing. 

There  was  one  contrivance  which  has  attracted  the  atten 
tion  of  several  explorers.  It  consisted  in  the  placing  of  a  solid 
stone  pillar  underneath  the  floors  of  a  room  which  constituted 
the  second  story  of  a  house,  and  so  made  to  support  the  room. 
The  explanation  is  that  as  the  Cliff-Dwellers  were  stinted  for 
space  and  needed  an  open  court  in  the  rear  of  the  houses,  they 
put  a  single  pillar  in  one  case  and  two  pillars  in  another  case, 
and  so  made  them  supports  for  the  upper  stories.  The  cut 
illustrates  the  pillar  which  was  found  by  Mr.  F.H.Chapin  in  the 
"Spruce  Tree  House,"  The  following  is  his  description: 

The  masonry  of  the  building  is  all  of  veiy  good  order;  the  stones  v  ere 
laid  in  mortar,  and  the  plastering  carefully  put  on,  though,  as  the  centuries 
have  elapsed,  it  has  peeled  off  in  certain  spots,  At  the  north  end  of  the 
ruins  is  a  specimen  of  masorry  not  to  be  seen  in  any  other  cliff-house  yet 
discovered,  This  is  a  plastered  stone  pier  which  supports  the  walls  of  an 
upper  lolt.  It  is  ten  inches  square  and  about  four  feet  high.  Resting  on 
it  are  spruce  timbers  which  run  from  an  outer  wall  across  the  pier  to  the 
back  of  the  cave.  Above  the  pier  is  a  good  specimen  of  a  T  shaped  doer, 
with  lintel  of  wood  and  sides  of  stone. 

Mr.  Nordenskjold 'noticed  the  same  contrivance  in  "Spring 
House,"  a  house  which  was  inaccessible  except  by  a  rope  which 
was  fastened  to  a  beam  and  extended  down  from  the  house  to 
the  side  of  the  cliff  below,  He  says; 

Here  two  quadrangular  pillars  were  erected  to  support  an  extensive 
roof.  t  seems  to  have  been  customary  to  leave  an  open  space  behind  the 
whole  cliff  dwelling,  ard  in  order  to  provide  support  for  an  upper  story 
without  having  to  encroach  upon  the  space  by  building  walls,  the  builder 
erected  these  pillars. 

The  ornamentation  of  the  walls  is  another  evidence  of  the 
superiority  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers.  All  the  explorers  have 
spoken  of  this  Colonel  Simpson  and  Mr.  Morgan  speak  of 
the  rooms  which  were  entirely  of  stone,  but  the  arrangement 
of  the  stone  in  the  walls  so  blended  with  the  poles  which 
formed  the  ceilings  above,  and  the  smooth  floor  below,  as  to 
make  them  attractive.  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes  and  W.  H.  Jackson 
have  also  spoken  of  the  wash  of  many  colored  plaster  which 
was  frequently  applied  to  the  rooms.  Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin  has 
spoken  of  the  peculiar  decoration  of  the  walls  and  has  given 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


281 


a  photograph    of  a  room  in  "Cliff   Palace"  and   of    another  in 
"Spruce  Tree  House."     He  says: 

Much  care  was  iised  in  finishing  the  walls,  little  holes  were  filled  with 
small  stones  or  chinked  with  fragments  of  decorated  pottery  and  painted 
ware.  Some  of  the  walls  were  decorated  with  lines  and^broad  bands  simi 
lar  to  embellishments  on  the  pottery.  In  "Cliff  Palace, "a  broad  band  had 
been  painted  across  the  walls,  and  above  it  is  a  peculiar  decoration  which 
is  shown  in  the  illustration.  The  lines  were  similar  to  the  enbellishment 
on  the  pottery  which  we  found.  The  walls  of  the  "Spruce  Tree  House," 
were  also  decorated  with  lines  similar  to  those  described  as  existing  in  the 
"Cliff  Palace."  One  of  more  interest,  is  the  picture  of  two  turkeys  fighting. 

Mr.  Mendeliff  also 
s.peaks  of  the  decor 
ation  of  the  walls  of 
the  estufas  found  in 
the  Canon  de  Chelly. 
He  says:  "Some  of 
the  kivas  have  interi 
or  decorations  con 
sisting  cf  bands  with 
points. The  band  done 
in  white  is  18  inches 
below  the  bench  and 
its  top  is  broken  at 
intervals  with  points. 
In  the  principal  kiva-s 
in  'Mummy  Cave' 
there  i  s  a  painted 
band  four  or  five  in 
ches  wide,  consisting 
of  a  meander  done  in 
red  over  a  white  back 
ground,  arranged  in 
squares.  Examples 
almost  identical  with 
those  shown  here  are 
found  in  the  Mancos 
ruins.*  It  is  probable 
that  they  are  of  a  cer 
emonial  rather  than 
of  a  decorative  origin" 

The  similarity  of  these^decorations  to  those  which  are  found 
upon  the  pottery  of  the  most  ancient  kind,  viz:  that  which  is 
decorated  in  black  and  white,  show  that  these  cliff-dwellings 
were  ancient,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  appear  so 
modern  in  their  style  and  finish.  It  is  universally  admitted 
that  there  was  a  decline  in  the  artistic  taste  and  mechanical 
skill  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  before  they  reached  their  final 
home  in  the  pueblos,  especially  those  of  the'  Moquis  and 
Zunis.  While  they  are  constructed  in  the  same  general  style 
and  are  very  massive,  yet  they  lack  the  peculiar  elements  of 


DECORATED    WALL    IN    CLIFF    PALACE. 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE:. 


taste  which  were  embodied  in  the  walls  and  rooms  of  the  build 
ings  now  in  ruins. 

IV.  The  number  and  arrangement  of  the  rooms  are  to  be 
studied  in  connection  with  the  village  and  domestic  life.  The 
number  varies  according  to  locality,  for  some  uf  the  cliff- 
villages,  such  as  the  one  called  "Cliff  Palace,"  has  as  many  as 
one  hundred  rooms,  others,  of  which  Monarch's  Cave  is  a 
specimen,  have  only  ten  or  twelve,  Still  every  cliff-village, 
whether  large  or  small,  had  the  same  elements.  As  to  the 

arrangement  of  the  apart 
ments,  there  was  also  a  greaj 
variation.  There  were  a 
few  cliff-villages  in  which 
the  apartments  were  sepa 
rated  from  one  another  by  a 
tower  which  stood  in  the 
centre,  the  dwellings  being 
placed  in  the  cove  of  the 
rocks  on  either  side.  The 
village  called  Mummy  Cave, 
in  Canon  de  Chelly  describ 
ed  by  Mr.  Mendeiiff,  has 
this  peculiarity.  There  was 
an  eastern  and  a  western 
cove;  fifty-five  rooms  in  the 
eastern  and  twenty  in  the 
western,  and  on  the  inter 
mediate  ledge  were  seven 
rooms  which  were  excep 
tionally  large  and  were  con 
structed,  all  of  them  two 
stories  high,  and  one  of 
them  three  stories,  which 
gave  it  the  appearance  of  a 
tower.  The  rooms  in  Casa 
Blanca,  or  "White  House," 
were  arranged  in  two  sepa 
rate  clusters.  One  cluster 
on  the  bottom  land  against 

the  vertical  cliff;  the  other  on  the  ledge  directly  above,  sepa 
rated  from  the  lower  portion  by  some  thirty-five  feet  of  verti 
cal  cliff.  There  is  evidence  that  some  of  the  houses  of  the 
lower  settlement  were  four  stories  high,  and  in  fact  reached  up 
to  the  ledge,  making  the  structures  practically  continuous. 
The  lower  ruin  comprised  about  sixty  rooms;  which  were  situ- 
a.  .d  but  a  few  feet  from  the  bottom  land  and  covered  an  area 
of  aboul  £0x150  feet,  The  upper  part  contained  about  twenty 
rooms,  arranged  about  the  principal  one,  which  was  situated 
in  the  centre  of  the  cave,  the  exterior  of  it  finished  by  a  coat 


CLIFF-DWELLING  IN  MUMMY  CAY 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF 


CLIFF-DWELLtRS. 


283 


of  whitewash  with  a  decorative  band  in  yellow,  hence  the 
name  Casa  Blanca,  "or  White  House."  The  walls  of  this  room 
are  two  feet  thick,  twelve  feet  high  in  front,  and  seven  feet 
high  on  the  sides  and  inside.  A  small  room  at  the  eastern 
end  of  the  cave  was  constructed  partly  of  adobe  and  partly  of 
stone,  and  it  was  probably  only  used  for  storage.  In  the  west 
ern  end  of  the  cave  there  was  another  single  room  eleven  feet 
high  outside,  the  lower  portion  of  stone,  the  upper  part  of 
adobe  with  buttresses*  constructed  of  stone.  Near  the  centre 
of  the  main  room  is  a  well  finished  doorway,  which  originally 
was  a  double  notched  or  T 
shaped  door,  which  in  later 
periods  was  filled  up  so  as  to 
leave  a  rectangular  door.  In 
the  southeast  corner  of  the 
second  room  from  the  east 
there  is  an  opening  in  the 
front  wall  which  may  have 
been  a  drain.  This  would  im 
ply  that  the  rooms  were  not 
roofed,  although  the  c  1  i  f f 
above  is  probably  500  feet 
high  and  overhangs  so  that  a 
perpendicular  line  would  fall 
70  feet  beyond  the  foot  of  the 
cliff,  and  15  feet  beyond  the 
outermost  walls,  still  a  driving 
storm  of  rain  or  snow  would 
leave  a  considerable  quantity 
of  water  in  the  front  rooms,  if 
not  roofed,  and  some  means 
would  have  to  be  provided  to 
carry  it  off.  In  the  fourth 
room  from  the  east  there  are 
remains  of  a  chimney  like 
structure — the  only  one  in  the 
upper  ruin. 

Nordenskjold  says:  "In 
the  'Spruce  Tree  House'  there 
was  a  division  of  the  village 
into  two  parts,  wrhich  were  separated  by  an  open  passage-way 
which  runs  back  through  the  whole  ruin.t  Each  part  contain 
ed  an  open  space  or  court.  There  was  a  spring  below  'Spruce 
Tree  House.'  Back  of  the  court  there  were  bird  droppings  of 
tame  turkeys.  A  tower  four  stories  high  gave  admirable  evi 
dence  of  the  great  skill  of  the  builders,  especially  when  we 

" ~ **/*r~ 

A  buttress  is  ananomolous  feature  which  Mr.  Mendeliffsays  is  difficult  to  b^HeVVof  aborig- 
:onception:  still  buttressesare  seen  in  manyplaces. 


CANYON    DEI.    MUERTO. 


inal  conceptic 


finis  shows  that  the  village  was  divided  into  phratries. 


284 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


remember  the   rude    implements    with    which    they  did    their 
work." 

This  separation  of  the  villages  into  two  parts  may  have 
been  owing  to  the  division  of  the  cliff  into  two  coves;  yet  it 
furnishes  a  hint  as  to  possible  differences  in  the  social  organi 
zation  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  in  the  Mancos  Canyon  and  the 
Canyon  de  Chelly.  In  the  first,  Mancos  and  Cliff  canyons,  the 
houses  are  continuous  and  the  tower  is  at  one  side;  while  in 
the  latter,  the  Canyon  de  Chelly,  the  tower  is  in  the  center  and 
the  houses  at  either  side,  thus  indicating  that  the  cacique,  or 
village  governor,  was  the  most  prominent  in  one,  and  the  war 
cai)tain  in  the  other.  The  evidence  that  there  were  phratries 
among  the  Cliff-Dwellers  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  the  ruins 
of  two  separate  pueblos  were  discoved  by  Mr.  Morgan  on  the 


WHITE  HOUSE  IN  THE.  CANYON  DE  CHELLY. 

Animas,  and  by  the  fact  that  Nordenskjold  noticed  the  open 
passage-way  between  the  two  sets  of  rooms  and  courts  in  the 
"Spruce  Tree  House.-'  It  is  plain  that  these  Cliff-Dwellings 
in  both  localities  were  FORTIFIED  VILLAGES,  or  pueblos,  and 
were  permanently  occupied,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Mendeliff  thinks  them  to  have  been  either  "temporary  resorts" 
or  "built  at  a  modern  date." 

V.  The  architectural  contrivances  which  brought  domestic 
conveniences  to  the  people  are  very  suggestive.  These  con- 
frsivarices  were  very  similar'  to  those  which  are  common  in 
mcriern  times  ind  are  in  great  contrast  to  anything  seen  among 
the  rude  Indian  tribes,  (i)  In  the  first  place,  the  building  of 
a  stone  house  Lla  two,  three  and  four  stories,  would  be  a 
strange  thing  foi  ^dinary  Indians  to  do.  The  Cliff-Dwellers 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


285 


RUINED   CLIFF-HOUSE    IN   THE 
MANGOS    CANYON.* 


not  only  built  such  houses,  but  they  placed  them  high  up  in 
the  sides  of  the  cliff,  carrying  the  food  on  which  they  were  to 
subsist  up  the  steep  paths,  and  depositing  it  in  the  store-houses 
which  were  built  in  the  niches  of  the  rocks.  The  cut  given  here 
with  shows  a  house, two  stor-  , 
ies  high,  which  was  placed 
on  a  ledge  1,000  feet  above 
the  valley.  It  looks  like  a 
modern  house,  for  it  is  fur 
nished  with  floors,  windows, 
doors,  and  rectangular  rooms 
which  are  plastered  and 
whitewashed.  Just  outside 
of  the  rooms  was  a  reservoir 
or  tank  designed  to  contain 
water,  which  was  reached  by 
climbing  down  the  sides  of 
the  house  by  the  aid  of  pegs 
in  the  walls,  while  in  front  of 
the  house  were  buttresses 
which  supported  a  balcony 
or  front  porch.  This  resem 
bles  the  houses  which  are  now  in  ruins  but  which  formerly 
stood  in  the  valley  of  the  Chaco  many  miles  to  the  south,  but 
with  this  essential  difference,  that  there  were  only  three 
rooms  in  this  house,  while  in  the  house  on  the  Chaco,  there 
were  some  three  hundred  ;  yet  the  rooms  in  the  small 

house  were  finished 
in  the  same  style 
and  had  the  same  ap 
pearance  as  those  in 
the  great  house.  (2-) 
The  stairways  which 
led  to  cliff-dwellings 
are  especially  worthy 
of  notice.  There  are 
stairways  to  the  mod 
ern  pueblos  of  the 
Tusayans  and  Ziwiis 
which  are  not  as  well 
made  as  these. 
Some  have  imaginecl 
that  the  style  of  build 
ing  houses  with  stair 
ways  and  stone  buttresses,  and  drains,  is  proof  that  the  cliff- 
dwellings  were  built  arter  the  advent  of  the  white  man;  but 

*This  Cliff  House  was  situated  nearly  i,coo  feet  above  the  valley  and  was  discovered  by  Mi. 
Jackson;  the  room  represented  in  the  other  cut  was  an  apartment  in  one  of  trie  pueblos  which 
Colonel  Simpson  discovered  in  the  Chaco  canyon.  The  solitary  house  is  suggestive  of  the  scat 
tered  condition  into  which  the  ancient  Pueblo  tribes  were  thrown  by  the  constant  attack  of  their 
enemies,  and  yet  the  finish  of  these  walls  and  apartments  show  the  advanced 'condition  of  the 
people  in  the  prehistoric  times. 


RUINED    HOUSE   IN    CHACO   CANYON. 


286 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


\ 


INDIAN  CORN  CARRIER/}" 


here  are  the  ruins  of  buildings,  one  of  which  was  erected  high 
up  in  the  cliff  on  the  Mancos  and  the  other  in  the  valley  of 
the  Chaco,*  which  have  doorways,  plastered  walls,  buttresses, 
windows,  and  double  stories,  and  even  "cornices"  resembling 
those  in  modern  houses,  and  we  conclude  that  if  any  buildings 
were  erected  in  prehistoric  times  these  must  have  been.  They 

show  the  conveniences  to 
which  the  people  were  accus 
tomed, — even  carrying  the 
material  to  the  cliffs  and  with 
infinite  pains  perpetuating 
them  in  the  houses  built 
there.  (3).  Another  contri 
vance  which  illustrates  the 
domestic  life  was  the  balcony. 
There  were  balconies  in  near 
ly  all  of  the  cliff-houses. 
They  projected  out  in  front 
above  the  first  story  and  be 
low  the  doors  of  the  second 
story  and  overlooked  the  valleys,  and  were  probably  used  as  the 
platforms  and  roofs  were,  as  the  loitering  places  where  the 
housewives  spent  much  of  their  time.  In  some  cases  the  balcon 
ies  formed  outside  passage-ways  between  the  rooms  of  the  upper 
stories,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  "Balcony  House."  (4)  The 
arrangement  of  the  doors  and  windows  was  another  convenience 
which  shows  much  skill  and  forethought.  There  were  not  only 
doors  which  gave  access  to  the  different  rooms  and  from  the 
rooms  to  the  courts,  but  there  were  win 
dows  which  gave  a  view  of  the  scenery 
outside,  thus  making  the  home  attrac 
tive  as  well  as  safe.  This  was  the  case 
'even  in  the  cave  dwellings. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson  in  speaking  of 
Echo  cave,  which  is  situated  twelve 
miles  below  Montezuma,  says: 

Window-like  apertures  afforded  communi 
cation  between  each  room  all  through  the 
second  story.  There  was  also  one  window  in 
each  lower  room  about  twelve  inches  square 
looking  out  toward  the  open  country. 

These  windows,  doors,  balconies  and 
roofs  gave  extensive  views  of  the  valleys,  and  the  fact  that  they 

*  A  room  decorated  in  Chaco  canyon  was  not  plastered,  but  was  finished  with  thick  and  thin 
stones  in  alternate  rows.  The  poles  which  formed  the  ceiling  and  the  floor  gave  to  it  a  very  neat 
appearance.  There  was  a  window  on  either  side  of  this  room,  and  a  door  at  one  end.  The  plate 
illustrates  this  manner  of  finishing  the  room. 

fThesecuts,  one  of  which  has  heen  kindly  loaned  us  by  the  National  Museum  and  the  other 
by  the  Santa  PeR.  R.,  illustrates  the  manner  of  carrying  the  corn  on  the  shoulder,  supported  by  a 
band  around  the  head,  and  the  adaptation  of  the  doors  to  receive  them.  Many  woven  bands 
have  been  discovered  among  the  cliff-dwellings.  The  custom  ef  weaving  the  bands  and  of  carry 
ing  the  corn  in  this  way  still  continues,  both  among  the  Navajos  and  the  Zunis. 


T  SHAPED  DOOR. 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


287 


were  so  common,  shows  that  the  Clift-Dwellers  were  lovers  of 
scenery  and  enjoyed  looking  out  upon  it.  (5)  There  were  con 
trivances  for  weaving,  cooking,  and  making  pottery  which  show 
their  industry  and  skill.  Mr.  Jackson  describes  some  of  these. 
He  says  of  Echo  Cave: 

In  the  central  room  of  the  main  building  we  found  a  circular  basin-like 
depression,  thirty  inches  across  and  and  ten  inches  deep,  that  had  served 
as  a  fireplace,  being  still  filled  with  the  ashes  and  cinders  of  aboriginal 
fires,  the  surrounding  walls  being  blackened  with  smoke  and  soot.  This 
room  was  undoubtedly  the  kitchen  of  the  house.  Some  of  the  smaller 
rooms  seem  to  have  been  used  for  the  same  purpose,  the  fires  having  been 
made  in  a  corner  against  the  back 
wall,  the  smoke  escaping  overhead. 
The  masonry  displayed  in  the  con 
struction  of  the  walls  is  very  cred 
itable;  a  symmetrical  curve  is  pre 
served  throughout  the  whole  line 
and  every  portion  is  perfectly 
plumb.  The  sub-divisions  are  at 
right-angles  to  the  front,  In  the 
rear  was  an  open  space  eleven 
feet  wide  and  nine  deep,  which 
probably  served  as  a  "work-shop." 
Four  holes  were  drilled  into  the 
smooth  rock  floor,  about  six  feet 
equidistantly  apart,  each  from  six 
to  ten  inches  deep,  and  five  inches 
in  diameter,  as  perfectly  round  as 
.though  drilled  by  machinery.  We 
can  reasonably  assume  that  these 
people  were  familiar  with  the  art 
of  weaving,  and  that  it  was  here 
they  worked  at  the  loom,  the  drill 
ed  holes  supporting  the  posts.  In 
this  open  space  are  a  number  of 
grooves  worn  into  the  rock  in 

various  places,  caused  by  the  artificers  of  the  little  town  in  sharpening  and 
polishing  their  stone  implements.* 

(6)  The  fireplaces  are  to  be  noticed.  One  kind  of  a  fireplace 
is  described  by  Mr.  Jackson,  and  a  cut  is  given  of  it;  another 
kind  is  described  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin.  It  consists  in  placing  a 

stone  fender  across  one  corner  of  the 
room.  This  shows  that  the  people 
provided  for  their  own  comfort  dur 
ing  the  cold  weather  and  lived  compar 
atively  secure,  even  amidst  the  cliffs. 
(7)  The  pottery  and  pottery-kilns  which 
have  been  described,  also  show  their 
artistic  taste  and  skill.  Pottery  vessels 
have  been  discovered  in  many  houses. 
Furnaces  used  for  firing  pottery  have  been  found  in  the  cliff- 
dwellings  on  the  Rio  Mancos  and  on  the  Rio  Verde.  One, 
having  walls  standing  to  the  height  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  and 
perfectly  preserved,  was  found  by  Dr.  Mearns  at  Oak  Creek. 

•See  Hayden's  Geographical  Survey  of  the  Territories:  Washington,  B.C.;  1,876,  page  32. 


WOMEN   WEAVING. 


FIREPLACE, 


288  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Large  pits  were  seen  in  the  vicinity  from  which  the  material  was 
taken.  (8)  The  mills,  axes  and  tools  are  worthy  of  notice. 
Metates,  or  large  stone  mortars  or  mills,  were  discovered  by  Dr. 
Mearns, — some  of  them  with  the  cylindrical  stone  which  was 
used  for,  grinding  inside  of  the  mills.  He  says  :* 

A  series  of  these  primitive  stone  mills  maybe  seen  in  the  Amer  can 
Museum,  Grooved  stone  axes  and  hatchets  were  numerous,  and  like 
wise  exhibit  an  unusually  wide  range  of  variation  in  size,  shade,  material 
and  workmanship.  Several  of  them  are.  in  form  and  finish,  scarcely  inferi 
or  to  the  modern  articles.  Some  of  the  picks  and  hammers  were  also 
models  of  the  handicraft  of  the  stone  age.  Not  the  least  interesting  were 
the  stone  wedges  (doubtless  intended  for  splitting  timbers)  and  agricultural 
tools.  There  was  also  a  large  assortment  of  stone  knives,  resembling  in 
shape  the  chopping-knife  of  modern  housewives.  Heavy  mauls,  pipes  of 
lava,  whetstones,  polishing-stone?,  and  other  implements  whose  use  is  not 
apparent,  were  obtained,  besides  mortars  and  pestles,  stone  vessels,  and 
plates  or  platters  of  volcanic  rock.  Besides  such  artirles  rf  domtstic  use, 
there  were  the  implements  of  warfare  and  of  chase,  including  rounded 
stone  hammers,  mostly  of  sandstone  and  scoria,  grooved  for  attachment  to 
a  handle  by  means  of  a  hide  thong;  also  grooved  stones  used  in  .arrow - 
making,  spear-heads  and  arrow  points  of  obsidian  or  agate,  and  flints  from 
the  war  club.  Pigments — red,  blue,  gray,  and  black— were  found;  also  a 
heavy,  black  powder,  and  the  usual  chipped  pieces  of  obsidian  (volcanic 
glass)  and  agate,  together  with  ornamental  pebbles,  etc.  Nor  were  orna 
ments  lacking,  such  as  amulets  of  shells  and  rings  of  bone  and  shells. 
Large  earthen  vessels  were  uncovered,  the  largest  of  them  had  a  capacity 
of  thirty  gallons.  One  room  appeared  to  have  served  as  a  store-room  for 
earthen  utensils,  some  of  which  were  found  in  nests  contained  one  within 
another,  the  smallest  specimen  measuring  but  ij^  inches  in  diameter. 
There  were  ladles,  dippers,  shallow  saucers,  graceful  ollas  and  vases  which 
displayed  much  artistic  feeling  in  their  conception  and  execution.  .  . 
Numerous  tools  of  bnne,  such  as  were  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  rope, 
neatly  carved  from  the  bones  of  deer  or  antelope,  were  among  the  relics 
found.  Varous  food  substances  were  examined,  including  bones,  teeth  or 
horns  (usually  charred  byfire)of  elk,  mule-deer,  antelope,  beaver,  ?per- 
mophile,  pouched  gopher,  wood-rat,  muskrat,  mice,  cotton-  and  jack  rabbit, 
turkey,  serpent,  turtle  and  fish,  A  sandal  of  vucca,  differing  in  design  from 
that  taken  from  the  wall  oi  Montezuma's  Castle,  and  several  pieces  of 
human  scalps,  complete  ihe  list  of  relics  from  this  casa. 

VI.  Here  then  we  have  the  archaeological  evidence  of  the 
domestic  life  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  both  those  who  were  situ 
ated  in  the  Mancos  canyon,  in  the  Canyon  de  Chelly  and  on 
the  Rio  Verde.  The  best  illustration,  however,  is  that  which 
is  given  by  the  people  who  still  inhabit  the  pueblos,  and  who 
are  supposed  to  be  the  same  people  who  formerly  spre,- d  over 
the  entire  plateau  and  some  of  whom  built  the  cliff-dwellings 
as  a  defense  against  the  wild  tribes.  Their  domestic  life, 
though  somewhat  modified  by  contact  with  the  whites, 
undoubtedly  resembles  that  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  for  they  are 
very  tenacious  of  their  old  customs  and  ways,  and  still  con 
tinue  the  same  organization  and  peculiar  pueblo  life. 

The  following  description  was  furnished  by  a  lady  who  be 
came  thoroughly  familiar  with  it  on  accompanying  her  hus 
band,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  field  parties  under  Major 

•Popular  Science  Monthly /^October  2oth,  1890,  pp.  761-62. 


2QO  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Powell,   Mrs.  James  Stevenson.     She  made  an  extensive  visit 
to  Zuni  and  says  : 

Their  extreme  exclusiveness  has  preserved  to  the  Zunians  their  strong 
individuality,  and  kept  their  language  pure.  According  to  Major  Powell's 
classification,  their  speech  forms  one  of  the  four  linguistic  stocks  to  which 
may  be  traced  all  the  Pueblo  dialects  of  the  southwest.  In  all  the  large 
area  which  was  once  thickly  dotted  with  settlements,  only  thirty-one 
remain,  and  these  are  scattered  hundreds  of  miles  apart  from  Taos,  in 
northern  New  Mexico,  to  Isleta,  in  western  Texas.  Among  these  remnants 
of  great  native  tribes,  the  Zunians  may  claim  perhaps  the  highest  position, 
whether  we  regard  simply  their  agricultural  and  pastoral  pursuits,  or  con 
sider  their  whole  social  and  political  organization. 

The  town  of  Zuni  is  built  in  the  most  curious  style.  It  resembles  a 
great  bee  hive,  with  the  houses  piled  one  upon  another  in  a  succession  of 
terraces,  the  roof  of  one  forming  the  floor  or  yard  of  the  next  above,  and 
so  on,  until  in  some  cases  five  tiers  of  dwellings  are  successively  erected 
though  no  one  of  them  is  over  two  stories  high.  These  structures  are  of 
stone  and  'adobe.'  They  are  clustered  around  two  plazas,  or  open  squares, 
with  several  streets  and  three  covered  ways  through  the  town.  The  upper 
houses  of  Zuni  are  reached  by  ladders  from  the  outside.  The  lower  tiers 


GRINDING   MEAL. 

have  doors  on  the  ground  plan,  while  the  entrances  to  the  others  are  from 
the  terraces.  There  is"  a  second  entrance  through  hatchways  in  the  roof, 
and  thence. by  ladders  down  into  the  rooms  be  ow.  In  times  of  threatened 
attack  the  ladders  were  either  drawn  up  or  their  rungs  were  removed,  and 
the  lower  doors  wers  securely  fastened  in  some  of  the  many  ingenious  ways 
these  people  have  ot  barring  the  entrances  to  their  dwellings.  The  houses 
have  small  windows  in  which  mica  was  originally  used,  and  is  still  employ 
ed  to  some  extent;  but  the  Zunians  prize  glass  highly,  and  secure  it  when 
ever  practicable,  at  almost  any  cost.  A  dwelling  of  average  capacity  lias 
four  or  five  rooms,  though  in  some  there  are  as  many  as  eight.  Some  of 
the  larger  apartments  are  paved  with  flagging,  but  the  floors  are  usually 
plastered  with  clay,  like  the  walls.  They  are  kept  in  constant  repair  by  the 
women,  who  mix  a  reddish-brown  earth  with  water  to  the  proper  consist 
ency,  and  then  spreading  it  by  hand,  always  laying  it  on  in  semi-circles. 
It  dries  smooth  and  even,  and  looks  well.  In  working  this  plaster  the 
squaw  keeps  her  mouth  filled  with  water,  which  is  applied  with  all  the  dex 
terity  with  which  a  Chinese  laundryman  sprinkles  clothes.  The  women 
appear  to  delight  in  this  work,  which  they  consider  their  special  preroga 
tive,  and  would  feel  that  their  .rights  were  infringed  upon  were  man  to  do 
it.  In  building,  the  men  lay  the  stone  foundations  and  set  in  place  the 
huge  logs  that  serve  as  beams  to  support  the  roof,  the  spaces  between  these 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  291 

rafters  being  filled  with  willow  brush;  though  some  of  the  wealthier 
Zunians  use  instead  shingles  made  by  the  carpenters  of  the  village.  The 
women  then  finish  the  structure.  The  ceilings  of  all  the  older  houses  are 
low;  but  Zuni  architecture  has  improved  and  the  modern  style  gives  plenty 
of  room,  with  doors  through  which  one  may  pass  without  stooping.  The 
inner  walls  are  usually  whitened.  For  this  purpose  a  kind  of  white  clay 
is  dissolved  in  boiling  water  and  applied  by  hand.  A  glove  of  undressed 
goat  skin  is  worn,  the  hand  being  dipped  in  the  hot  liquid  and  passed 
repeatedly  over  the  wall. 

In  Zuni,  as  elsewhere,  riches  and  official  position  confer  importance 
upon  possessors.  The  wealthier  class  live  in  the  lower  houses,  those  of 
moderate  means  next  above,  while  the  poorer  families  have  to  be  content 
with  the  uppermost  stories.  Naturally  nobody  will  climb  into  the  garret 
who  has  the  means  of  securing  more  convenient  apartments,  under  the 
huge  system  of '"French  Flats,"  which  is  the  way  of  living  in  Zuni. 

The  Alcalde,  or  lieutenant-governor,  furnishes  an  exception  to  the 
general  rule,  as  his  official  duties  require  him  to  occupy  the  highest  house 
of  all,  from  the  top  of  which  he  announces  each  morning  to  the  people  the 
orders  of  the  governor,  and  makes  such  other  proclamations  as  may  be 
required  of  him. 

Each  family  has  one  room,  generally  the  largest  in  the  house,  where 
they  eat,  work  and  sleep  together.  In  this  room  the  wardrobe  of  the  family 
hangs  upon  a  log  suspended  beneath  the  rafters.  Only  the  more  valued 
robes,  such  as  -those  worn  in  the 
dance,  being  wrapped  and  carefully 
stored  away  in  another  apartment. 
Work  of  all  kinds  goes  on  in  this 
larger  room,  including  the  cooking, 
which  is  done  in  a  fireplace  on  the 
long  side,  made  by  a  projection  at 
right  angles  with  the  wall,  with  a 
mantel-piece  on  which  rests  thebase 
of  the  chimney.  Another  fireplace 
in  another  place  is  from  six  to  eight 
feet  in  width,  and  above  this  is  a 
ledge  shaped  chimney  like  a  ^£^ 
Chinese  awning.  A  highly-polished  ^* 
slab,  fifteen  or  twenty  inches  in  size, 

is  raised  a  foot  above  the  hearth.  MAKING  BREAD. 

Coals  are  heaped  beneath  this  slab, 

and  upon  it  the  Waiavi  is  baked.  This  delicious  kind  of  bread  is  made 
of  meal  ground  finely  and  spread  in  a  thin  batter  upon  the  stone  with 
the  naked  hand.  It  is  as  thin  as  a  wafer,  and  these  crisp,  gauzy  sheets 
when  cooked  are  piled  in  layers  and  then  folded  or  rolled.  Light  bread, 
which  is  made  only  at  feast  times,  is  baked  in  adobe  ovens  outside  of  the 
houses.  When  not  in  use  for  this  purpose  they  make  convenient  kennels 
for  the  dogs,  and  playhouses  for  the  children.'  Neatness  is  not  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  Zunians.  In  the  late  autumn  and  winter  the  women 
do  little  else  than  make  bread;  often  in  fanciful  shapes  for  the  feasts  and 
dances  which  continually  occur.  A  sweet  drink,  not  at  all  intoxicating, 
is  made  from  the  sprouted  wheat.  The  men  use  tobacco,  procured 
from  white  traders,  in  the  form  of  cigarettes  from  corn-husks;  but  this  is  a 
luxury  in  which  the  women  do  not  indulge.  The  Pueblo  mills  are  among 
the  most  interesting  things  about  the  town.  These  mills,  which  are  fasten 
ed  to  the  floor  a  few  feet  from  the  wall,  are  rectangular  in  shape,  and 
divided  into  a  number  of  compartments,  each  about  twenty  inches  wide 
and  deep,  the  whole  series  ranging  from  five  to  ten  feet  in  length,  accord 
ing  to  the  number  of  divisions.  The  walls  are  made  of  sand- stone.  In 
each  compartment  a  flat  grinding  stone  is  firmly  set,  inclining  at  an  angle  of 
forty-five  degrees.  These  slabs  are  of  different  degress  of  smoothness 
graduated  successively  from  coarse  to  fine.  The  squaws,  who  alone  work 
at  the  mills,  kneel  before  them  and  bend  over  them  as  a  laundress  does 
over  the  wash-tub,  holding  in  their  hands  long  stones  of  volcanic  lava, 


2o2  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE.  \ 

which  they  rub  up  and  down  the  slanging  slabs,  stopping  at  intervals  to 
place  the  grain  between  the  stones.  As  the  grinding  proceeds  the  grtet  is 
passed  from  one  compartment  to  the  next  until,  in  passing  through' the 
series,  it  becomes  of  the  desired  fineness.  Tuis  tedious  and  laborious 
method  has  been  practiced  without  improvement  from  time  immemorial, 
and  in  some  of  the  arts  the  Zunians  have  actually  retrograded. 

The  Spanish  account  is  earlier  and  better,  and  we  shall 
therefore  close  with  quoting  from  Mendoza,  who  says: 

Most  of  the  houses  are  reached  from  the  flat  roof,  using  their 
ladders  to  go  to  the  streets.  The  stories  are  mostly  half  as  high  again  as  a 
man,  except  the  first  one  wbich  is  low  and  little  more  than  a  man's  height. 
One  ladder  is  used  to  communicate  with  ten  or  twelve  houses  together. 
They  make  use  of  the  low  ones  and  live  in  the  highest  ones;  in  the  lowest 
ones  of  all  they  have  loop-holes  made  sideways,  as  in  the  fortresses  of 
Spain.  The  Indians  say  that  when  the  people  are  attacked  they  station 
themselves  in  their  houses  and  fight  from  there.  When  they  go  to  war 
they  carry  shields  and  wear  leather  jackets  which  are  made  of  cow's  hide 
colored,  and  they  fight  with  arrows  and  with  a  sort  of  stone  maul,  and  with 
some  other  weapons  made  of  sticks.  They  eat  human  flesh  and  keep  those 
whom  they  capture  in  war  as  slaves.  In  their  houses  they  keep  hairy  animals 
(vicunas?)  like  the  large  Spanish  hounds,  which  they  shear,  and  they  make 
long  colored  wigs  from  the  hair,  which  they  wear,  and  they  also  put  the 
same  stuff  in  the  cloth  which  they  make.  The  men  are  of  small  stature; 
the  women  are  light-colored  and  of  good  appearance  and  they  wear 
chemises  which  reach  down  to  their  feet;  they  wear  their  hair  on  each  side, 
done  up  in  a  sort  of  twist,  which  leaves  their  ears  outside,  in  which  hang 
many  turquoises  as  well  as  on  their  neck  and  arms.  The  clothing  of  the 
men  is  a  cloak,  and  over  this  the  skin  of  a  cow;  they  wear  caps^on  their 
heads;  in  summer  they  wear  shoes  made  of  painted  or  colored  skin,  and 
high  buskins  in  winter.  They  cultivate  the  ground  the  same  way  as  in 
New  Spain.  They  carry  things  on  their  heads  as  in  Mexico.  The  men 
weave  cloth  and  spin  cotton;  they  have  salt  from  the  marshy  lake  which  is 
two  days  from  Cibola.  The  Indians  have  their  dances  and  songs  with 
some  flutes,  which  have  holes  on  which  to  put  the  fingers;  they  make  much 
noise;  they  sing  in  unison  with  those  who  play,  and  those  who  sing  clap 
their  hands  in  our  fashion.  They  say  that  five  or  six  play  together,  and 
that  some  of  the  flutes  are  better  than  others.  .  .  .  The  food  which  they 
eat  in  this  country  is  corn,  of  which  they  have  a  great  abundance,  and 
beans  and  venison,  which  thev  probably  eat  (although  they  say  that  they  do 
not),  because  we  found  many  skins  of  deer  and  hares  and  rabbits.  They 
make  the  best  corn  cakes  I  have  ever  seen  anywhere,  and  this  is  what 
everybody  ordinarily  eats.  They  have  the  very  best  arrangement  and 
machinery  for  grinding  that  was  ever  seen.  One  of  these  Indian  women 

here  will  grind  as  much  as  four  of  the  Mexicans I  send  you 

a  cow  skin,  some  turquoises,  and  two  earrings  of  the  same,  and  fifteen  of 
the  Indian  combs,  and  some  plates  decorated  with  these  turquoises,  and 
two  baskets  made  of  wicker,  of  which  the  Indians  have  a  large  supply.  I 
also  send  two  rolls,  such  as  the  women  usually  wear  on  their  heads  when 
they  bring  water  from  the  spring,  the  same  way  they  do  in  Spam.  These 
Indian  women,  with  one  of  these  rolls  on  her  head,  will  carry  a  j  ir  of  water 
up  a  ladder  without  touching  it  with  her  hands.  And,  lastly,  I  send  .you 
samples  of  the  weapons  with  which  the  natives  fight,  a  shield,  a  hammer, 
and  a  bow  and  some  arrows,  among  which  there  are  two  with  bone  points, 
the  like  of  which  have  never  been  seen. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 

In  treating  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  we  have  thus  far  given 
much  more  attention  to  the  architectural  structures  than  we 
have  to  their  relics,  for  we  find  in  them  distinguishing  traits, 
which  enable  us  to  identify  the  culture,  progress  and  history 
of  this  peculiar  people.  There  are,  however,  some  advantages 
in  studying  the  relics  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  and  making  them  a 
source  of  information,  about  their  history  and  social  status; 
the  chief  of  which  is  that  the  relics  are  now  gathered  into 
museums  and  subjected  to  the  inspection  of  all  the  visitors, 
and  so  presented  to  the  public  that  specialists  have  an  oppor 
tunity  of  studying  them  at  their  leisure. 

Great  care  will,  however,  be  necessary  to  distinguish  these 
relics  from  those  of  the  wild  tribes  who  have  continued  to 
dwell  in  that  vicinity  since  the  departure  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers, 
and  who  have  left  their  relics  mingled  near  the  ancient  habita 
tions,  and  sometimes  in  the  very  midst  of  the  ruins.  This  is 
not  always  easy  to  do,  for  there  is  far  more  similarity  between 
the  relics  of  the  two  classes  of  people,  than  between  the  struc 
tures;  the  structures  having  been  made  of  entirely  different 
material, — wood  and  bark  used  by  the  wild  tribes,  but  stone 
andadobe  by  the  Cliff-Dwellers;  while  the  relicsof  the  wild  tribes 
and  Cliff-Dwellers  were  made  of  all  kinds  of  materials — wood, 
stone,  shells,  bones  and  pottery,  and  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish 
between  those  of  one  class  and  those  of  another.  It  is  hardly 
expected  that  the  ordinary  observer  will  be  able  to  distinguish 
between  these  relics  as  they  are  gathered  into  museums  and  col 
lections,  and  say  which  belonged  to  the  wild  hunters,  who  have 
continued  to  roam  in  the  same  region,  and  which  to  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers, nor  can  it  be  expected  that  he  will  be  able  to  distinguish 
between  the  pottery  and  other  relics  of  modern  Pueblos  and  the 
ancient  people;  yet  it  is  important  that  this  should  be  done,  for 
by  this  means,  do  we  determine  the  difference  between  the 
condition  of  the  later  and  that  of  the  earlier  and  less  known 
people. 

We  may  say  that  the  early  explorers  who  visited  the  pueblos, 
and  especially  those  who  went  into  the  midst  of  the  cliff 
dwellings,  were  more  careful  than  some  of  the  later  explorers 
and  relic  hunters,  and  were  able  not  only  to  distinguish  between 
the  two  classes — the  ancient  and  modern, — but  also  able  to 
point  out  the  tribal  distinctions  by  examination  of  the  weapons, 
implements,  peculiarities  of  dress  and  ornaments,  and  say 
whether  they  belonged  to  Utes,  Navajos,  Mojaves,  Pimas, 
Papagoes,  or  other  tribes  which  roamed  through  the  region 
after  the  American  explorations  began. 


294  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

It  is  not  expected  that  any  ordinary  white  man  will  be  as 
discriminating  as  the  aborigines  are  themselves,  tor  this  would 
require  almost  a  life-time  of  familiarity  with  the  relics  and  long 
training,  for  which  few  have  the  opportunity.  Still,  it  is  the 
work  of  the  archaeologist  to  approximate  this  skill  and  learn  to 
distinguish  the  relics  which  belong  to  the  different  tribes, 
whether  found  in  the  fields  or  gathered  in  the  museums,  and 
recognize  the  tribal  lines  and  different  periods  represented  by 
the  specimens.  Mr.  Barber  says: 

Each  distinct  Indian  tribe  possesses  its  individual  characteristics  and 
peculiarities,  different  from  all  others;  and,  although  neighboring  tribes  may 
resemble  each  other  in  certain  mutual,  well-established  customs,  there  are 
always  minor  points  of  difference  in  language,  habits,  the  forms  of  waifare, 
or  peculiarities  of  dress;  and  by  these  points  an  individual  Indian  may  be 
recognized  as  belonging  to  a  certain  tribe,  even  should  the  observer  be  not 
sufficiently  familiar  with  the  savage  physiognomy  to  class  him  by  his  facial 
characteristics.  Among  themselves,  Indians  possess  a  remarkable  degree 
of  discernment,  being  able  to  detect  the  most  minute  shades  of  difference 
in  well-known  objects,  so  that  one  can  determine  unerringly  to  what  tribe 
another  may  have  belonged,  from  the  sight  of  a  single  impression  of  a 
moccasined  foot  in  the  soil.  So  great  is  their  acuteness  of  vision  and  pro 
ficiency  in  the  interpretation  of  signs,  that  they  readily  distinguish  objects 
and  their  kind  at  a  great  distance,  when  unaccustomed  eyes  can  discover 
nothing.  To  the  eye  of  the  unexperienced  in  such  matters,  a  stone  arrow 
head,  in  whatever  section  of  the  West  it  may  have  been  picked  up,  would 
present  the  appearance  simply  of  an  Indian  relic;  but  when  exposed  to  the 
gaze  of  a  warrior,  it  is  immediately  recognized  as  having  been  used  by  a 
certain  tribe.  This  is  more  wonderful  for  the  reason  that  stone  weapons 
have  entirely  disappeared  from  among  them,  The  stone  heads,  which  were, 
perhaps,  fashioned  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  being  now  replaced  by 
iron-pointed  arrows,  fastened  on  the  wooden  shaft.* 

To  these  explorers  great  credit  is  due,  not  only  on  this  ac 
count,  but  because  they  carried  on  their  explorations  under  great 
difficulties  and  amid  danger  of  attacks  from  the  wild  tribes  of 
savages.  It  is,  however,  worthy  of  notice  that  very  few  of 
these  early  explorers  spent  any  time  in  digging  for  relics,  and 
their  finds  were  such  as  could  easily  be  gathered  from  the 
midst  of  the  cliff  dwellings,  while  some  of  the  later  explorers 
spent  more  time  in  this  way,  and  were  able  to  bring  away 
large  and  valuable  collections. 

In  giving  the  description  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers'  relics,  we 
shall  refer  to  these  explorers  and  rely  upon  their  testimony, 
especially  that  which  relates  to  the  difference  between  the 
relics  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  and  those  of  the  wild  tribes,  and 
between  the  relics  of  the  ancient  Cliff- Dwellers  and  the  modern 
Pueblos,  and  so  make  a  double  line  of  comparison.  We  shall 
first  take  the  different  districts  which  were  occupied  by  the 
Cliff-Dwellers  and  notice  the  localities  from  which  the  relics 
were  gathered,  and  learn  from  them  about  their  distribution. 
We  shall  next  consider  the  characteristics  of  the  relics  which 
were  found  in  these  districts,  and  compare  them  with  those 
which  belong  to  the  Pueblos,  and  notice  the  changes  which 

*"  Language  and  Utensils  of  the  Modern  Utes,"  by  E.  A.  Barber. 


STONE   AXES   OF   THE   PUEBLOS. 


STONE    FETICHES    OF    THE    PUEBLOS, 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  297 

have  appeared  in  them.  We  shall,  in  the  last  place,  take  the 
relics  which  belong  to  different  regions,  and  which  indicate 
different  periods  of  occupation,  and  so  find  out  the  changes 
which  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  themselves 
and  recognize  the  different  grades  of  culture  which  are  mani 
fest  in  the  relics. 

I.  We  shall  first  speak  of  the  distribution  of  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers'  relics.  There  are  several  distinct  districts  which  ma)' 
be  ascribed  to  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  and  from  which  Cliff-Dwellers' 
relics  have  been  gathered.  These  districts  may  be  classified  in 
the  order  of  their  discovery,  as  follows  : 

(i)  Those  situated  along  the  San  Juan,  especially  in  the 
Mancos  Canon;  (2)  those  on  the  Rio  de  Chelley;  (3)  those 
on  the  Rio  Verde.  To  these  should  be  added  the  relics  from 
different  districts  where  pueblos  are  situated,  viz.:  (4)  The 
pueblos  of  the  Tusayans;  (5)  the  Zuni  pueblo,  including  Acoma; 
(6)  the  pueblos  on  the  Rio  Grande  from  Taos  to  Socorro;  (7) 
the  cave  dwellings  in  Potreros  west  of  the  Rio  Grande,  near 
Cochiti;  (8)  the  region  along  the  Gila  and  the  valley  of  the 
Sonora.  The  relics  from  these  different  districts  taken  together, 
form  a  most  unique  and  interesting  series,  and  one  worthy  of 
study,  for  they  indicate  a  condition  of  society  and  stage  of  art 
which  is  peculiar  and  which  is  found  nowhere  else.* 

The  number  of  relics  which  have  been  gathered  is  astonish 
ing.  Nearly  all  the  museums  of  this  country  abound  wiih  large 
collections,  and  yet  the  supply  is  by  no  means  exhausted,  for 
new  localities  are  being  constantly  visited  and  the  old  and 
ruined  pueblos  are  yielding  new  and  interesting  supplies. 

The  cliff  dwellings  proper  are  all  situated  on  the  northern 
and  western  borders  of  the  Pueblo  region,  but  they  are  so  near, 
that  the  relics  gathered  from  them  seem  to  partake  of  the  same 
characteristics,  though  the  ancient  specimens  shade  into  the 
modern,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  between  the  two. 
It  is,  however,  the  testimony  of  all  that  the  corrugated  and 
black  and  white  ware  are  found  in  the  caves  and  cliff  dwellings 
and  in  the  ruined  pueblos,  and  indicate  that  a  population  once 
spread  over  the  entire  region,  which  used  this  kind  of  pottery 
almost  exclusively.  Much  of  the  decorated  pottery  is  of  a 
later  origin. 

I.  We  shall  begin  with  the  relics  which  were  discovered  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  San  Juan  and  its  tributaries,  and  especially 
those  which  were  found  in  the  Mancos  Canon.  Various  parties 
have  entered  this  region  and  gathered  relics  from  the  cliff 
dwellings.  Among  these,  we  may  mention  first,  the  gentlemen 
who  accompanied  the  Hayden  survey  in  1874  and  1876,  viz.: 
Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson,  Mr.W/H.  Holmes  and  Mr.  E.  A.  Barber;r 


*This  division  of  the  territory  from  which  relics  have  been  gathered  is  about  the  same  as  tnat 
laid  down  in  the  map,  as  indicating:  the  diffeient  clusters  or  groups  of  cliff  dwellings  and  pueblos, 
though  th«re  is  no  attempt  to  indicate  the  tribal  lines. 

t  Their  reports  are  attended  with  various  cuts  which  give  an  idea  of  the  stone  relies,  pottery 
and  its  decorations:  We  take  pleasure  in  referring  to  these  cuts. 


298  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

next  Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin,  of  Hartford,  and  Dr.  Birdsall,  of  New 
York  City,  who  between  1890  and  1893  explored  the  ruins  in 
Mancos  Canon,  and  who  published  descriptions  of  the  relics 
and  the  cliff  dwellings  in  various  publications,  among  which, 
the  chief  was  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN.  Mr.  Chapin 
also  published  a  book  called,  "The  Land  of  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers."  This  contains  a  map  of  the  Mesa  Verde  region,* 
with  the  canons  plainly  marked  upon  it;  also,  a  large 
number  of  photographic  views  of  the  cliff  dwellings  and  their 
relics.  The  next  to  enter  the  field  was  Mr.  Nordenskjold,  who 
spent  considerable  time  measuring  and  surveying  the  cliff- 
dwellings  and  excavating  for  relics,  and  who  afterwards  pub 
lished  in  Stockholm,  Sweden,  a  magnificent  work,  in  quarto  form, 
which  was  written  in  English  and  Swedish  and  contained  many 


REGION   WHERE   THE   CLIFF    DWELLINGS   WERE   FIRST   DISCOVERED. 

photographic  plates.  The  other  parties  in  the  field  about  the 
same  time,  who  were  collecting  relics  for  exhibition  at  the 
World's  Fair,  spent  their  time  mainly  in  a  general  ransacking 
of  the  region  for  relics,  and  made  no  note  of  the  particular 
locality  from  which  they  were  taken.  These  collections  are 
not  without  value,  for  they  contain  many  rare  specimens  of 
decorated  pottery,  also,  many  wooden  implements,  specimens 
of  textile  fabrics,  a  large  number  of  stone  relics,  many  mum 
mied  skeletons,  which  showed  the  physical  characteristics  of 
the  Cliff-Dwellers  themselves.  Their  collections  were  valuable 
in  awakening  attention  to  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  and  giving  many 

*  1  his  map  shows  the  location  of  the  ruins  of  Aztec  Springs,  described  by  Holmes,  Jackson 
ar-d  Barber;  also  oi  the  Cliff  House  described  by  Nordenskjold;  also  of  the  Sandal  Cliff  House 
in  Azcowitz  Canyon,  near  which  the  Wetherells  gathered  so  many  relics. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  299 

new  ideas  to  the  specialist;  but  they  can  not  be  relied  upon, 
inasmuch  as  they  were  not  accompanied  with  any  definite 
descriptions,  and  the  localities  of  the  finds  still  remain  uncertain. 

It  was  through  the  unscientific  collectors  that  certain  relics 
which  evidently  belong  to  Ute  Indians,  and  consist  of  rude  wil 
low  cradles  and  wooden  slings  with  cotton  cord  attached  to 
them,  have  found  their  way  into  museums  and  are  placed  along 
side  of  Cliff-Dwellers'  relics,  because  they  were  gathered  from 
near  cliff  dwellings.  We  may  say,  however,  that  the  relics 
which  were  gathered  by  the  Wetherell  Brothers,  and  which  were 
placed  in  the  museum  in  Denver,  were  much  more  carefully 
exhumed,  and,  perhaps,  can  be  pronounced  as  genuine  Cliff- 
Dwellers'  relics. 

The  following  is  the  description  of  them  by  Mr.  F.  H. 
Chapin.  He  says  : 

They  commenced  their  excavations  in  the  first  cliff  house  in  Mancos 
Canyon,  called  "  Sandal  Cliff  House."  They  followed  up  the  digging,  and 
were  very  successful.  They  discovered  one  hundred  sandals,  some  in  good 
condition,  others  old  and  worn  out;  a  string  of  beads;  a  pitcher  full  of 
squash  seeds,  and  a  jug  with  pieces  of  string  passing  through  the  handles. 
This  jug  was  filled  with  corn,  well  shelled,  with  the  exception  of  two  ears. 
They  excavated  a  perfect  skeleton,  with  even  some  ol  the  toe  nails  remain 
ing;  it  had  been  buried  with  care  in  a  grave,  two  and  one-half  feet  wide,  six 
feet  long  and  twenty  inches  deep.  A  stone  wall  was  upon  one  side,  and 
the  bottom  of  the  grave  was  fin;shed  with  smooth  clay.  The  body  lay  with 
the  head  to  the  south,  and  face  to  the  west.  It  was  wrapped  in  a  feather 
cloth,  and  then  laid  in  matting.  Buried  with  it  was  a  broken  jar,  a  very  small 
unburned  cup,  a  piece  of  string  made  from  hair,  and  one  wooden  needle. 

Next  to  the  wall  mentioned  above,  was  found  the  body  of  an  infant, 
which  was  dried  and  well  preserved,  like  a  mummy.  It  was  wrapped  in 
thin  cloth,  that  was  once  feather  cloth,  and  encasing  all  was  willow  matting, 
tied  securely  with  yucca  strings.* 

2.  The  relics  which  were  gathered  from  the  Rio  de  Chelley 
are  next  to  be  considered.  This  region  was  visited  successively 
by  General  Simpson  in  1849,  Mr.  W.  H.  Jackson  in  1876,  Mr. 
F.  T.  Bickford  in  1890,  and  Mr.  Cosmos  Mindeleff  in  1895.  The 
cliff  dwellings  were  measured  and  the  relics  described.  The 
Navajos  were  the  occupants  of  the  region,  but  they  dwell  in 
hogans  or  huts.  They  were  formerly  hunters,  but  are  now  shep 
herds.  They  have  no  permanent  villages,  though  they  cultivate 
the  soil  in  the  valleys  during  the  summer,  and  during  the  winter 
make  their  homes  in  the  mountains.  They  are  known  as  a 
strong,  athletic  and  finely-formed  tribe,  and  are  distinguished  for 
their  skill  in  blanket  weaving  and  in  the  manufacture  of  metal 
relics,  and  especially  for  their  wonderful  sand  paintings.  Their 
pottery  is  of  an  inferior  character,  and  their  relics,  though 
superior  to  those  of  the  Utes,  are  not  as  varied  or  as  well 
wrought  as  those  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  who  preceded  them. 
It  is  comparatively  easy  to  draw  the  line  between  the  two 
classes,  for  the  earlier  people  were  agriculturists  and  led  a 
sedentary  life,  and  their  pottery  and  relics  were  such  as  the  agri- 

•"The  Land  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,"  by  F.  H.  Chapin;  page  160. 


300 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


cultural  people  of  the  entire  region  were  accustomed  to  use. 
The  distinction  between  the  two  classes  of  people  may  also  be 
recognized  in  the  traditions  which  are  still  extant. 

The  Navajos  have  a  very  remarkable  myth  or  tradition, 
called  the  "  Mountain  Chant,"  which  describes  the  introduction 
of  sand  painting.  It  contains  a  description  of  the  adventures 
of  a  hunter,  who  was  taken  captive  by  a  Ute;  every  part  of  the 
story  has  reference  to  tents  of  hunters  and  to  the  experiences 
which  hunters  have  among  the  mountains,  and  the  haunts  of 
the  animals,  with  which  hunters  become  familiar.  No  such 
myth  exists  among  the  Pueblos,  for  all  of  their  mythology  is 
connected  with  the  scenes  of  agriculture,  and  their  ceremonies 


PUEBLO    AT    EPSOM    CREEK. 


have  reference  to  nature  powers  and  the  rain  gods,  rather  than 
the  mountain  divinities.  The  relics  and  pottery  ornaments  con 
tain  symbols  which  illustrate  the  two  classes  of  myths. 

3.  The  cliff  dwellings  of  the  Rio  Verde  were  first  brought 
to  li^ht  by  the  guide  Leroux,  who  attended  Colonel  Ewbank  in 
his  explorations  in  1849.  They  were  afterwards  visited  by  Dr. 
W.  J.  Hoffman  in  1877,  and  Dr.  Edgar  A.  Mearns  in'  1884  and 
1890;  and  those  at  Red  Bank  not  far  from  the  Rio  Verde  were 
visited  by  Mr,  J.  Walter  Fewkes  in  1895. 

It  was  in  this  vicinity  that  Dr.  Hoffman  discovered  Monte- 
zuma  Castle  and  the  remarkable  depression  in  the  rocks  which 
is  called  Montezuma  Wells.  In  both  of  these  localities  the 
Cliff-Dwellers  evidently  made  their  homes,  for  there  are  many 
caves  and  ruined  cliff  dwellings,  which  indicate  long  periods  of 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  301 

occupation.  The  especial  attraction  of  the  latter  place  was  the 
bountiful  supply  of  water  from  the  so-called  wells.  The 
description  by  Dr.  Hoffman  is  as  follows: 

Montezuma  Wells  is  so  called  from  the  fact  that  it  is  an  oblong  depres 
sion,  about  sixty  or  seventy  feet  deep,  having  perpendicular  walls,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  is  a  deep  spring  or  clear  water.  The  excavation  is  about 
100  yards  in  its  greatest  diameter,  and  about  sixty  yards  in  its  lesser, 
There  is  but  one  point  from  which  a  descent  can  be  made,  and  which  pass 
age  is  guarded  by  small  cliff  dwellings.  In  the  various  depressions,  these 
small  habitations  are  located,  giving  the  place  a  very  singular  appearance. 
From  the  base  of  the  depression  on  the  eastern  side,  there  is  a  narrow  and 
low  tunnel,  leading  out  to  banks  of  Beaver  Creek  a  distance  of  about  sixty 
or  eighty  feet.  The  settlement  within  this  natural  enclosure  was,  no  doubt, 
a  retreat  in  times  of  danger,  as  the  sloping  surface  receding  from  it  is  cov 
ered  with  ruins  of  former  structures,  over  the  remains  of  which,  and 
throughout  considerable  surface  beyond,  the  soil  is  covered  with  numerous 
fragments  of  beautifully  glazed  and  incised  pottery.  Flint  and  carnelian 
flakes,  weapons  and  other  remains  occur  in  considerable  quantities.  The 
land  surrounding  this  locality  is  excellent  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  it 
appears  to  have  been  at  one  time  under  cultivation.  Wherever  one  turns, 
scattered  pieces  of  pottery  are  visible;  giving  either  proof  of  a  very  large 
settlement,  or  one  that  lasted  for  many  years. 

They  were  almost  identical  in  form,  style  and  material  with 
those  which  Mr.  Gushing  obtained  from  the  Casa  Grande  of  the 
Salt  River.  There  were  certain  relics  which  show  that  the 
social  status  was  essentially  the  same.  He  says  : 

The  walled  buildings  are  of  two  kinds — those  occupying  natural  hollows 
or  cavities,  and  those  built  in  exposed  situations.  The  former,  whose  walls 
are  protected  by  sheltering  cliffs,  are  sometimes  found  in  almost  as  perfect 
a  state  of  preservation  as  when  deserted  by  the  builders,  unless  the  torch 
has  been  applied.  The  latter,  of  Pueblo  style  of  architecture,  usually  occu 
pying  high  points  and  commanding  a  wide  extent  of  country,  are  in  a 
ruined  state,  although  the  walls  are  commonly  standing  to  the  height  of  one 
or  more  stories,  with  some  of  the  timbers  intact. 

Another,  and  very  common  form  of  dwelling,  is  the  caves,  which  are 
excavated  in  the  cliffs  by  me;  ns  of  stone  picks  or  other  implements.  They 
are  found  in  all  suitable  localities  that  are  contiguous  to  water  and  good 
agricultural  land,  but  are  most  numerous  in  the  vicinity  of  large  casas 
grandes.  Most  of  them  are  in  limestone  cliffs,  as  the  substratum  of  sand 
stone  is  not  as  commonly  exposed  in  the  canyons  and  cliffs,  but  many  cavate 
dwellings  are  in  sandstone. 

The  additional  remains  observed  by  me  are  mounds  in  the  vicinity  of 
ancient  dwellings,  extensive  walls  of  stone  and  mortar,  large  quantities  of 
stone  implements  and  fragments  of  broken  pottery,  acequias  or  irrigating 
ditches,  ancient  burial  grounds,  and  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  on  stones  and 
cliffs — the  last  two  to  be  doubtfully  referred  to  the  cliff-dwellers. 

4  and  5.  The  relics  from  the  Tusayan  Pueblos,  as  well  as 
those  from  Zuni,  have  been  described  by  nearly  all  the  explorers, 
Colonel  Simpson,  W.  H.  Holmes,  F.  H.  Gushing,  James  Steven 
son,  J.  Walter  Fewkes  and  others.  Mr.  Holmes  has  described 
those  gathered  from  near  St.  George,  Utah,  nearly  300  miles 
west  of  the  Rio  Mancos.  He  says  : 

The  most  notable  collection  of  coiled  ware  ever  yet  made  in  any  one 
locality  is  from  a  dwelling  site  tumulus,  near  this  place.  The  shapes  of 
the  corrugated  relics  are  of  the  simplest  kinds.  The  prevailing  forms 


302 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


VASE  FROM  THE  TUSAYAN  PUEBLOS. 


correspond  very  closely  with  the  Cliff  House  specimen  illustated  in  the  cut. 
The  region  now  inhabited  by  the  Pubelo  tribes,  seems  to  have  been  a  favor 
ite  residence  of  ancient  people.  Ruins  and  remains  of  ceramic  art  may  be 
found  at  any  time,  and  it  is  a  common  thing  to  find  ancient  vessels  in  the 
possession  of  Pueblo  Indians.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  Zunis  and 
Moquis,  from  whom  considerable  collections  have  been  obtained.  It  seems 

unaccountable  that  so  large 
a  number  of  ancient  vessels 
should  be  preserved,  but 
many  have  been  picked  up 
by  the  later  Pueblo  tribes 
and  put  away  for  special  use, 
or,  probably,  as  heirlooms. 
Besides  the  archaic  white 
ware  and  its  closely  asso 
ciated  red  wf.re;  the  Prov 
ence  of  Tusayan  furnishes 
two  or  three  distinct  varie 
ties,  which  are  apparently 
confined  to  limited  districts. 
There  are  few  better  ex 
amples  of  the  skill  and 
good  taste  of  the  ancient 
potter  than  a  bowl,  the 
upper  part  of  which  is 
painted  a  bright  red,  bor 
dered  in  black,  with  fine 
white  stripes,  a  globular 
vase,  with  an  ornamented 
surface,  separated  into  two  parts  by  vertical  panels  A  vessel,  shown  above, 
is  from  the  Tusayan  province.  The  whole  decoration  consists  of  interlinkc  d 
meander  united;  not  arranged  in  belts,  but  thrown  together  in  a  careless 
manner  across  the  body  of  the  vase.  A  superb  vessel  is  a  typical  example 
of  the  work  of  the  ancient  potters  of  Cibola.  In  form  it  falls  a  little  short 
of  perfect  symmetry.  A  similar  vase  from  Zuni  is  illustrated  in  the  cata 
logue.  The  ornament  consists  of  three  zones,  a  band  of  step  figures  about 
the  neck,  the  handsome  meander  chain  with  twisted  links  upon  the 
rounded  collar,  and  a  broad  band  of  radiating  meanders  encircling  the 
body.* 

6  and  7.  In  reference  to  the  relics  from  the  Rio  Grande, 
from  the  caves  among  the  Potreros,  and  from  the  pueblos  on 
the  Chaco,  Mr.  A.  F.  Bandelier  has  furnished  the  most 
information.  He  says: 

The  pottery  is  mostly  evenly  glazed.  The  potsherds  are  of  the  older 
kind — black  with  white  decorated  lines,  and  corrugated. 

There  were  three  distinct  epochs  of  occupation,  the  most  recent  of  which 
was  by  the  Queres.  On  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  vicinity  of  Bernahllo,  the  pot 
tery  is  of  the  glazed  type  and  with  decorations;  but  the  common  cooking 
pottery— plain  black— was  also  well  represented.  Much  obs'dian,  moss 
agate,  chips  of  flint  and  lava,  broken  metals,  and  a  few  bits  of  turquoise 
were  the  other  objects  lying  on  the  surface.  The  pottery  of  the  Chaco  ruins 
decidedly  of  the  ancient  type,  and  no  specimen  of  glazed  ornamentation  has 
been  found  in  that  vicinity.  In  the  valley  of  San  Mateo,  the  specimens  of 
pottery  were  very  remarkable. 

I  was  greatly  surprised,  however,  at  seeing  the  specimens  of  pottery 
which  the  excavations  had  yielded.  I  can  safely  assert  that,  in  beauty  and 
originality  of  decoration,  they  surpass  anything  which  I  have  seen  north, 
west  and  east  of  it  in  the  Rio  Grande  valley  and  around  the  Salines.  There 


*  Fourth  Aunual  Report  Ethnological  Bureau,"  pp.  333-345. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  303 

were  among  them  bowls  of  indented  pottery,  one-half  of  their  exterior 
being  smooth  and  handsomely  painted  and  decorated  with  combinations  of 
the  well-known  symbols  of  Pueblo  Indian  worship.  On  another  specimen, 
I  noticed  handles  in  the  shape  of  animal  heads.  Such  specimens  are  quite 
rare.  The  shape  of  the  vessels  did  not  differ  from  those  which  other  ruins 
and  even  the  Pueblos  of  to-dav  afford.  It  was  only  the  decoration,  and 
especially,  the  painting,  that  attracted  my  attention.  Mr.  Lummis  speaks 
of  other  objects— shell  beads,  stone  axes,  hammers,  metals  and  arrow  heads. 

8.     As  to  the  relics  on  the  Gila,  Mr.  Bandelier  says: 

The  pottery  on  the  upper  Gila  is  like  that  which  I  found  on  the  Rio 
Grande  at  San  Diego.  It  is  different  from  the  pottery  of  the  Salines,  and 
has  marked  resemblance  to  potsherds  from  eastern  Arizona  and  especially 
those  Irom  the  Sierra  Madre,  Casa  Grandes  in  Chihuahua,  although  better 
in  material  and  more  elaborately  decorated  with  a 
greater  variety  of  shades,  the  same  fundamental  pat 
terns  underlie  the  decorations,  as  in  Utah,  Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  and  on  the  Rio  Grande;  in  short,  every 
where  where  Pueblos  are  found .  It  is  Pueblo  pottery, 
in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term,  as  well  as  in  its  nar 
rowest  acceptance.  The  basis  for  the  decoration  is 
always  the  well-known  religious  symbols  of  Pueblo 
ritual, only  more  elaboratelyand  tastefully  combined 
and  modified.  We  recognize  the  clouds,  the  earth, 
rain,  the  ''double  line  of  life,"  but  there  is  a  progress 
in  execution,  as  well  as  in  combination  of  the  figures.  WATER  JAR.* 

Only  near  Casas  Grandes  do  we  find  a  decided  im 
provement  in. the  form  of  the  hand-mills  or  metates.^  Those  on  the  Mimbres 
and  its  vicinity  are  as  rude  as  any  further  south.  The  same  may.be  said  of 
mortars  and  pestles,  which  are  sometimes  decorated  with  attempts  at  the 
carving  of  animal  forms.  Trinkets  and  fetiches  seem  to  be  the  same  every 
where  as  far  as  latitude  of  29°.  Of  textile  fabrics,  cotton  has  not  been 
found  on  the  upper  Gila,  as  far  as  I  know,  but  the  yucca  has  played  a  great 
role  in  dress  and  fictile  work.  Mats  of  yucca,  plaited  kilts  of  the  same 
material,  resembling  those  described  as  worn  by  the  Zunis  three  centuries 
ago,  sandals  and  yucca  thread  (pita)  have  been  found  in  sheltered  ruins. 
In  a  cave  village  on  the  upper  Gila.  I  noticed  a  piece  of  rabbit  fur  twisted 
around  a  core  of  yucca  thread.  Of  such  strips  the  rabbit  mantles  of  the 
Moquis,  wbich  Fray  Marcos  heard  of,  and  was,  of  course,  unable  to  under 
stand,  were  made,  and  are  made  at  this  day.  Turquoise  beads  are  not  un- 
frequently  met  with,  associated  with  shell  beads.t 

II.  We  turn  from  the  subject  of  the'distribution  of  relics, 
to  consider  their  characteristics.  We  have  already  said  that 
the  relics  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  resemble  those  of  the  Pueblos 
of  the  more  ancient  type.  Together  they  constitute  a  very 
unique  series.  They  are,  in  fact,  as  unique  as  are  the  relics  of 
the  Lake  Dwellings  in  Switzerland,  but  instead  of  belonging  to 
the  borders  of  the  neolithic  and  bronze  age,  as  they  do,  they 
constitute  a  subdivision  of  the  neolithic  age.  The  relics  of  the 
Mound-Builders  make  a  subdivision  on  the  one  side,  and 
those  of  Mexico  and  the  far  southwest  a  subdivision  on  the 
other  side.  The  relics  from  the  tribes  of  the  northwest  and 
those  of  the  Canadian  tribes  of  the  northeast,  also  make  other 
subdivisions  of  the  same  age.  The  Cliff-Dwellers'  relics  are  so 


*The  ornamentation  and  shape  of  this  vessel  show  much  taste. 

t  Paper  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America — Ameiican  Series,  1892;  pp.  350-352;  by 
A.  F.  Bandelier. 


304 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


marked  in  their  characteristics  that  they  can  be  easily  recog 
nized  in  any  museum  or  large  collection,  even  if  they  are  not 
placed  in  separate  rooms. 

They  are  very  instructive,  as  they  suggest  a  stage  of  pro 
gress  and  cultural  condition  which  was  distinctive.  They  indi 
cate  a  peaceful  and  sedentary  life,  as  a  large  number  of  them 
consist  of  implements  which  were  used  in  industrial  pursuits; 
the  pottery  exceeding  in  number  and  interest,  all  other  speci 
mens.  They  may  be  divided  into  several  classes,  as  follows: 
i.  Those  which  were  made  of  stone,  whether  used  as  weapons 
of  war,  for  industrial  pursuits,  or  for  domestic  purposes.  2. 
Those  which  were  wrought  from  wood,  the  most  of  them 
being  implements  which  were  used  in  agriculture;  others,  arti 
cles  used  for  weaving  and  other  domestic  purposes.  3.  Those 
which  were  made  of  shell,  turquoise,  and  other  material,  and 
used  for  personal  ornament.  4.  The  pottery  which  is  found 


MET  ATE    FROM    THE    ZUNI    PUEBLO. 

in  great  quantities,  great  varieties  of  shape,  and  in  many  pat 
terns.  5.  Textile  fabrics,  which  are  of  two  or  three  classes:  ( I ) 
Those  made  from  wood,  such  as  willow  and  bark;  (2)  those 
made  from  yucca  and  other  plants— especially  cotton;  (3)  those 
made  from  feathers  and  skins  of  animals.  It  will  be  interest 
ing  to  take  up  these  different  classes  of  relics  and  examine 
them  in  turn. 

I.  We  begin  with  the  stone  relics  which  were  used  for 
ordinary  purposes,  and  mention  first  those  discovered  near  the 
cliff  dwellings  of  the  San  Juan.  There  are  many  weapons  of 
war  and  the  chase  among  the  relics,  such  as  arrow  heads,  spears, 
lance  heads,  darts,  battle  axes,  tomahawks  and  arrow  polishers 
or  straigtheners.  Mr.  Barber  says: 

The  great  number  of  war  arrows  are  undoubtedly  of  Ute  origin,  having 
been  projected  into  the  midst  of  the  ancient  towns,  but  some,  at  least,  ?re 
the  productions 'of  the  beseiged,  although  they  were  eminently  a  peaceful 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  305 

people.  We  would  not  expect  to  discover  these  weapons  of  the  Pueblo 
race,  however,  immediately  under  the  walls  of  their  own  buildings,  but 
rather  further  out  on  the  plains.  The  majority  of  our  specimens  were 
found  in  the  close  neighborhood  of  the  mural  remains. 

It  is  undisputable  that  great  battles  have  been  fought  here. 
Among  the  relics  of  battles  are  the  barbed  arrow  heads,  which 
were  used  as  missiles;  many  of  which  were  probably  shot  from 
the  loop  hole  forts  by  the  warriors  who  were  stationed  there  to 
watch  against  the  approach  of  enemies.  The  arro\v  heads  are 
particularly  noticeable  on  account  of  their  delicacy,  perfection, 
symmetry,  diminutiveness  and  exquisite  coloring.  We  first 
find  them  varying  from  less  than  half  an  inch  in  length  to  three 
inches.  The  materials  are  of  agate,  jasper,  chalcedony,  flint, 
carnelian,  quartz,  sandstone,  obsedian,  si'icified  and  agatized 
wood.  Sometimes  we  find  a  beautiful  transparent  amber-colored 
chalcedony  specimen;  again,  a  flesh-colored 
arrow  head  made  of  agatized  wood;  and 
another  of  a  pea-green  tint,  red  jasper,  flint 
of  every  shade  and  color-  According  to 
form,  they  may  be  classified  into  nine  divis 
ions:  ( i)  leaf  shaped;  (2)  triangular;  (3)  in 
dented  at  the  base;  (4)  stemmed;  (5)  barbed; 
(6)  beveled;  (7)  diamond  shaped;  (8)  oval 
shaped;  (9)  shape  of  a  serpent's  head.  The 
leaf  shaped  occur  more  numerously  at  a  dis 
tance  from  the  ruins  on  the  plains,  where 
they  have  been  employed  in  the  slaying  of 
game,  but  the  barbed  near  the  cliff  dwellings. 
The  smaller  variety  of  axes  may  have  been 
used  as  tomahawks.  Household  implements 
were  more  widely  distributed  than  the  AXE 

weapons.  They  were  scattered  through  all 
the  ruins;  the  majority  crudely  made,  but  some  of  them 
smoothly  polished  and  ground  to  a  cutting  edge.  A  number 
of  forms  of  hammers  and  mauls  were  discovered,  varying  in 
weight  from  a  few  ounces  to  twenty-five  pounds.  They  were 
usually  made  of  compact  sandstone,  and  were  cylindrical  with 
the  groove  of  the  handle  extending  around  the  circumference 
at  one  end.  The  heavy  mauls  must  have  required  more  than 
one  pair  of  hands  to  wield  them.  Some  of  the  hammers  were 
ovoid,  with  the  groove  extending  around  the  centre,  so  that 
either  side  could  be  used  at  will. 

Numerous  serrated  implements  were  picked  up  among  the  debris  of 
the  ruins,  of  different  sizes  and  form?,  which  were  evidentlv  intended  for 
?awin<r.  The  fragments  of  some  indicated  that  the  entire  instrument  had 
been  several  inches  in  length,  and  one  inch  or  so  broad.  One,  however, 
was  a  circular  stone,  of  a  bright  grern  color,  in  which  the  entire  circumfer 
ence  (with  the  exception  of  a  small  arc)  had  been  toothed  or  chipped.  This 
was  probably  used  in  the  same  manner  as  the  straight  saws,  being  held 
between  the  finger  and  the  thumb. 

Chisels,  awls,  borers  and  rimmers  o~cur  in  abundance.     The  chisels  or 


3o6  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

pointed  tools  were  probably  used  in  chipping  out  hieroglyphics.  The  awls, 
borers  and  rimmers  were  employed  in  perforating  skins,  wood,  stone,  etc. 

Stone  mortars  are  rare  in  a  state  of  entirety,  yet  we  found  many  frag 
ments  scattered  over  the  plains  and  through  the  canyons.  The  prevailing 
material  seems  to  have  been  sandstone  Pestles  are  very  rarely  seen. 
However  in  the  Moqui  village,  I  observed  several  stone  mortars,  some  eight 
or  ten  inches  in  diameter,  with  their  accompanying  pestles,  which  had  been 
placed  on  the  house  tops;  and  I  was  told  that  they  had  not  been  in  use  for 
many  years,  having  descended  with  many  old  stone  implements  from  the 
forefathers  of  the  trbe, 

One  of  the  most  common  objects  to  be  found  in  and  about  the  crumb 
ling  buildings  is  the  millstone  or  nictate,  and  with  it  the  corn  grinder.  Lieut. 
Emory  says  of  the  ancient  remains  along  the  Gila  River:  '  The  implements 
for  grinding  corn,  and  the  broken  pottery,  were  the  only  vestiges  of  the 
mechanical  arts  which  we  saw  amongst  the  ruins,  with  the  exception  of  a 
tew  ornaments,  principally  immense  well-iurned  beads,  the  size  of  a  hen's 
egg.'* 


AXES   OE    CLIFF-DWELLERS. 

Mr.  Nordcnskjold  discovered  stone  relics  among  the  cliff 
dwellings  which  should  be  classed  with  the  implements  and 
weapons.  At  Mug  House  he  found  skinning  knives  made  of 
quartzite,  also  drills  and  stone  axes;  at  Kodak  House,  a  flint 
knife  of  black  slate,  arrow  head  and  spear  head,  scalper,  a  metate 
made  of  brown  sandstone,  large  stone  hammer,  a  large  rough- 
hewn  circular  mortar,  rounded  stones  used  for  grinding,  and 
long  flat  disks  of  wood,  baskets  of  woven  yucca,  made  water 
tight  and  coated  on  the  inside;  gourds  and  squashes,  mats  made 
of  withes  split  and  held  together  by  cords  of  yucca,  snow 
shoes  and  pieces  of  cotton  cloth. 

For  the  sake  of  comparison,  we  turn  to  the  stone  relics  of 
the  Pueblos.  They  were  mainly  relics  designed  for  industrial 
and  domestic  purposes.  They  consist  of  hammers,  mauls, 
stone  axes,  knives,  saws,  chisels,  darts,  rimmers,  borers,  scrapers 


"  American  Naturalist,"  1877. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


307 


or'  rleshers,  mortars,  pestles,  mill  stones,  metates,  grinders, 
arrow  polishers,  perforated  stones  for  drawing  out  sinew, 
gauges,  and  pounders.  These  resemble  the  stone  relics  found 
in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially  those  found 
among  the  Pueblos. 

A  very  large  collection  of  them  has  been  gathered  in  the 
National  Museum.  Catalogues  have  been  published  at  differ 
ent  times.  That  which  was  prepared  in  1879  D>r  ^r-  James 
Stevenson,  and  published  in  1881,  is,  perhaps,  the  earliest  and 
most  reliable.  We  give  a  plate*  on  which  the  axes  are  repre 
sented,  taken  from  this  report.  Of  these,  Mr.  Stevenson  says:f 

No.  42257  is  a  grooved  axe  of  basalt,  the  only  specimen  of  this  par 
ticular  form  in  the  collection. 

No.  42208  is  a  large  stone  celt  of 
coarse  san  istone,  shaped  like  a  wedge. 
It  is  about  ten  inches  long,  has  four 
flat  sides,  and  may  have  been  a 
grinder.  Its  surface  is  quite  roagh 
and  pitted. 

No.  42337  is  a  grooved  maul  of 
compact  sandstone,  almost  round. 
Several  such  specimens  were  col 
lected.  They  have  been  better  pre 
served  thin  the  axes,  as  their  shape 
adapts  them  to  grinding  food,  hence 
they  were  not  used  for  splitting  or 
cutting. 

No.  42213  is  a  water-worn  boulder 
of  qiarczite,  grooved  around  the 
center. 

The  axes  on  the  plate  are  of  the 
ordinary  form,  and  show  much  use, 
The  metate,  shown  on  page  304,  is  of 
the  ordinary  kind.  Many  such  mil  Is  or 
metates  are  found  in  nearly  every 
pueblo.  The  different  apartments 
were  designed  to  hold  the  meal  as 
it  grew  finer  under  the  grinding 
process.  Mortars  and  pestles  are  also  common. 

Mr.  Stevenson  described  a  paint  mortar,  gathered  at  Zuni, 
with  a  pestle  made  from  a  quartz  pebble;  another,  made  of 
sandstone,  with  a  square  pestle,  designed  to  move  backward 
and  forward,  instead  of  up  and  down  and  around.  Another 
mortar  is  represnted  in  the  cut  with  a  pestle  inside  of  the  mor 
tar.  The  pestle  has  a  pit  hole  in  its  side,  which  was  designed 
to  hold  the  pigment  after  it  was  ground,  which  was  used  with  a 
brush  for  decorative  purposes.  The  cup  and  pestle  were  found 
together.  Besides  these  relics,  there  are  many  idols,  or  images, 
which  represent  the  fetiches,  or  gods,  of  the  Pueblos.  These 
are  made  in  the  shape  of  animals,  such  as  the  wolf,  bear, 
panther,  eagle  and  mole.  They  sometimes  have  arrows  bound  to 


MORTAR    AND    PESTLE. 


*See  page  20.*.     The  numbers  refer  to  the  catalogue  number  of  the  museum. 
fSee  Second  Annual  Report  Bureau  Ethnology,  1881,  pp.  330-465. 


308 


PRIMITIVE  ARICHTECTURE. 


them.*  They  form  an  interesting  series  which  show  the  religious 
superstition  of  the  people.  The  plate,  which  is  taken  from  the 
Report  of  the  Ethnological  Bureau  1881,  illustrates  this.  Mr. 
Gushing  has  described  them  and  their  uses. 

2.  All  of  the  explorers  have  spoken  of  the  mechanical  tools 
which  are  found  among  the  cliff  dwellings,  though  some  of  them 
were  at  a  loss  to  know  to  what  use  they  were  put.  Mr.  Holmes 
described  a  series  of  relics  which  were  discovered  in  the  cliff 
dwellings  of  Mancos  Canon,  some  of  which  were  wood  and 
stone,  and  a  few  of  shell,  and  gives  a  cut  to  illustrate  them. 
Me  says: 

This  cut  contains  drawings 
of  a  number  of  stone  imple 
ments,  arrow  heads,  ornaments, 
and  other  articles  manufactured 
or  used  by  the  ancient  inhabi 
tants  of  this  region.  Nearly  all 
were  found  so  associated  with 
the  architectural  remains,  that 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  assign 
them  to  the  same  period. 

No.  i  represents  a  small 
fragment  of  rush  matting.  A 
large  piece  of  which  was  found 
on  the  floor  of  one  of  the  cliff 
houses  of  the  Rio  Mancos.  It 
was  manufactured  from  a  species 
of  rush,  that  gro,vs  somewhat 
plentifully  along  the  Mancos 
bottoms. 

No.  2  represents  a  bundle  of 
small  sticks,  probably  rsed  in 
playing  some  game.  They  are 
nearly  a  foot  in  length,  and  have 
been  sharpened  at  one  end  by 
scraping  and  grinding.  They 
were  found  in  one  of  the  cliff 
houses  of  the  Mancos,  buried 
beneath  a  pile  of  rubbish.  The 
bit  of  cord,  vith  which  they 
were  tied,  is  made  of  a  flax-like 
fiber,  carefully  twisted  and  wrap 
ped  with  coarse  strips  of  yucca 
bark;  beside  this,  a  number  of 
short  pieces  of  rope  of  different 
sizes  were  found,  ihat  in  beauty 
and  strength  would  do  credit  to  any  people.  The  fiber  is  a  little  coarser  and 
lighter  than  flax,  and  was  probably  obtained  from  a  species  of  yucca,  which 
grows  everywhere  in  the  southwest. 

No.  3  15  a  very  perfect  specimen  of  stone  implement,  found  buried  in  a 
bin  of  charred  corn  in  one  of  the  Mancos  Cliff  houses.*  It  is  8  inches  in 
length,  and  2^  inches  broad  at  the  broadest  part;  its  greatest  thickness  is 
only  y2  inch.  One  face  is  slightly  convex,  while  the  other  is  nearly  flat 
The  sides  are  neatlv  and  uniformly  rounded,  and  the  edge  is  quite  sharp' 


ARROW  HEADS,  FLESHER  AND  GRINDER 
FROM  MANCOS  CANYON. 


*  See  Report  Ethnological  Bureau,  1880,  Volf  II.,  p.  275  "Book  on  Myths  and  Symbols;" 
also,  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN; 

*  Specimens  of  this  kind  of   celt  or  flesher  ave  very  numerous  among    the    Cliff-Dwellers. 
Mr.  Nordenskjold  has  described  several   as  found  in  Cliff   Palace  and    other   localities.    The 
arrow  heads  illustrate  the  different  shapes  which  are  described  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Barber. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


309 


It  is  made  of  a  very  hard,  fine-grained,  siliceous  slate;  is  gray  in  color,  and 
has  been  ground  into  shape  and  polished  in  a  most  masterly  manner. 
Although  its  use  is  not  positively  determined,  it  belongs,  in  all  probability, 
to  a  class  of  implements  called  "  scrapers,"  which  are  employed  by  most 
savag  e  tribes  in  the  dressing  of  skins.  This  specimen  may  have  been  used 
for  other  purposes,  but  certainly  not  for  cntting  or  striking,  as  the  metal  is 
very  brittle,  The  most  conclusive  proof  of  its  use,  is  the  appearance  of  the 
edge,  which  shows  just  such  markings  as  would  be  produced  by  rubbing  or 
scraping  a  tough,  sinewy  surface. 

No.  4  represents  a  part  of  a  metate  or  millstone.     The  complete  imple 
ment  consists  of  two  parts— a  large  block  of  stone  with  a  concave  surface, 
upon   which    the   maize  is   placed,  and  a  carefully 
dressed,  but  coarse  grained  slab  of  stone  for  grind 
ing.     This  slab    is   generally  from   eight   to    twelve 
inches  long  by  three  to  six  inches  wide,  and  from  one 
to   two    inches    thick.     The    specimen    illustated    is 
made  of  black  cellular  basalt,  and  was  found,  with 
many  others,  at  the  ruined  pueblo  near  Ojo  Calcinte, 
New  Mexico. 

No.  5  is  a  very  much  worn  specimen  of  stone 
axe,  which  was  found  at  an  ancient  ruin  near  Abiquiu, 
New  Mexico.  It  is  made  of  light  colored  chloritic 
schist,  and  measures  two  inches  in  width  by  three  in 
length. 

No.  6  and  6a  are  specimens  of  ear  ornaments, 
such  as  are  found  in  connection  with  very  many  of 
the  ruins  of  southern  Colorado,  These  are  made  of 
fine-grained  gray  slate,  only  moderately  well  polished, 
one  measured  an  inch  and  a  quarter  in  length. 

No.  7  represents  a  marine  shell  of  the  genus 
Olivella,  obtained  probably  from  the  Pacific  coast. 
Large  numbers  of  this  and  allied  shells  are  found 
about  these  ruins.  They  are  generally  pierced,  and 
were  doubtless  used  as  beads. 

No.  8  represents  a  small  carved  figure  found  on 
the  Rio  Mancos.  It  is  made  of  gray  slate.  Its  use 
or  meaning  can  not  be  determined. 

No.  Q  represents  a  stone  ring,  five-eighths  ot  an 
inch  in  diametar,  and  pnobably  intended  for  the  finger. 
It  is  made  of  hard  gray  slate;  is  shaped  like  the  usual 
plain  gold  ring,  and  is  quite  symmetrical. 

No.  10  represents  arrow  heads  which  were  found 
associated  with  nearly  every  ruin  examined.  They 
present  a  great  variety  of  form;  some  of  the  more 
striking  of  these  are  given  in  the  cut.  The  materials 
used  in  their  manufacture  are  principally  the  more 
beautiful  varieties  of  obsidian,  jasper  and  agate.*  WOODEN  SHOVEL.f 

Mr.  Stevenson  has  described  certain  wooden  relics  from  the 
Zuni  pueblos.  One  of  them  is  an  ordinary  shovel,  which  was 
used  to  shovel  the  snow  off  the  roofs;  another  is  the  bow  and 
drill,  which  was  used  for  drilling  stone  A  cut  is  also  given,  in 
which  a  native  is  represented  as  sitting  upon  a  Navajo  blanket, 
dressed  in  the  usual  costume  now  worn  by  the  Zunis,  drilling  a 
hole  in  a  turquoise.  The  cut  illustrates  the  manner  in  which 
the  drill  was  used.J 


*"A   Notice  of  the  Ancient  Remains  of  Southwestern    Colorado     Examined  During  the 
Summer  of  1875,"  by  W.  H.  Holmes;  pp.  23  and  24. 
fThis  relic  is  from  the  Zuni   Pueblo. 
J  Third  Annual  Report  Bureau  Ethnology,  p.  582. 


3io 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


3.  The  personal  adornments  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  are 
worthy  of  notice.  They  may  be  classed  according  to  material, 
as  follows:  Bead  ornaments  made  from  shells  or  earthernware; 
necklaces  made  from  bone,  horn,  stone,  claws  and  teeth  of 
animals;  ear  pendants  of  turquoise;  feather  head  dresses; 
woven  sashes;  fringes  of  fur,  and  tassels  of  fur  and  fibre.  The 
following  description  is  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Barber: 

The  marine  shells  were  converted  into  beads  by  the  ancient  tribes,  but 

they  are  valued  highly  by  the  present  Navajo  Indians,  who  were  constantly 

grubbing  about  the  old  buildings  and  adjacent  graves  in  search  of  these 

trinkets,  which  accounts  in  same  manner  for  their  great  scarcity  in  the  ruins 

to-day.     They  were  undoubtedly  obtained  by  the  ancients  from  other  tribes, 

which  brought  them  all  the  shells  from  which 

they  were  fashioned  from  the  Pacific  coast. 

Ot  the  second  class  of  ornaments,  many  are 
found  among  the  heaps  of  ancient  pottery  which 
surround  all  the  ruined  buildings.  A  small  piece 
of  pottery,  generally  of  the  best  glazed  and 
painted  ware,  is  taken  and  the  edges  ground 
down  to  a  rectangular  or  circular  form,  from  a 
YL  inch  to  \Yz  inches  in  length.  The  circular 
specimens  have  perforations  in  the  centre;  the 
square,  have  holes  near  one  end. 

The  turquoises  were  obtained  from  the 
Los  Cerillos  Mountains  in  New  Mexico,  south 
east  of  Santa  Fe.  Here  is  a  quarry  which  was 
worked  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
it  was  here,  undoubtedly,  that  the  ancient  Cliff- 
Dwellers  obtained  their  turquoises  Here, 
probably,  the  Moquis,  Pueblos  and  Zunis  pro 
cured  the  turquoises  mentioned  by  the  Friar 
Marco  de  Nica  in  1330,  and  by  Coronadoin  1540. 
Marco  de  Nica  wrote:  '  They  have  emeralds  and 
other  jewels,  although  they  esteem  none  so 
much  as  turquoises,  wherewith  they  adorn  the 
walls  of  the  porches  of  their  houses  and  their 
apparel  and  mules.  They  use  them  instead  of 
money  all  through  the  country.  The  last  class 
of  bead  ornaments  or  pendants  were  made  of 
stone  or  silcified  wood,  and  were  used  as  ear 
rings  or  necklaces,  They  vary  from  halt  an 
inch  to  two  inches  in  length.  They  were  sus 
pended  from  either  circular  ear  drops  or  from 
the  front  of  necklaces.  Such  ornaments  are 
still  worn  among  the  Mojaves,  Moquis  and 
Znnis.'  * 

Mr.  Bandelier  says  : 

RATTLE  AND  CLAPPER.!  Turc-uoise   beads  and   ear    pendants,  asso 

ciated  with  shell  beads,  are  not  unfrequently  met 
with  at  Casas  Grandes  in  Chihuahua.     In  central 

Arizona  copper  has  been  found  on  the  upper  and  lower  Salado.  I  have 
seen  many  turquoise  beads,  and  ear  pendants  of  turquoises  precisely  like 
those  worn  by  the  Pueblo  Indians,  to-day;  also  shell  beads  and  many  shells 
entire,  as  well  as  broken  and  perforated.  The  following  species  have  been 
identified  from  the  copies  made  by  me  in  colors:  Turritella  Broderipiana, 
a  species  from  the  Pacific  coast;  Conus  regufarithom  the  West  Indies,  and 
a  Columbella,  locality  not  given.  All  the  univalves  found  at  Casas  Grandes, 


'"American  Naturalist,"  1877.        fThis  relic  is  from  the  Zuni  Pueblo. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.  311 

as  far  as  I  know,  are  marine  shells.  The  finding  of  such  shells  at  a  point 
so  far  away  from  the  sea  coast  and  nearly  equidistant  from  the  gulfs  of 
Mexico  and  of  California,  is  a  remarkable  feature,  implying  a  primitive 
commerce,  or  inter-tribal  warfare,  which  carried  the  objects  to  the  inland 
pueblo  at  Casas  Grandes.* 

4.  The  pottery  from  the  cliff  dwellings  is  next  to  be  con 
sidered.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  coiled  and  corrugated 
pottery  and  that  in  black  and  white  are  found  in  great  abund 
ance  in  nearly  all  of  the  cliff  dwellings — those  on  the  Mancos, 
Rio  de  Chelley,  Rio  Verde  and  on  the  Rio  Grande — and  are 
regarded  as  the  oldest  of  all.  There  are  specimens  of  pottery 
in  red  and  various  colors  and  with 
different  patterns  found  among  the 
Pueblos.  This  would  indicate  that 
the  Cliff-Dwellers  were  older  than 
the  Pueblos,  and  that  the  stage  of 
culture  similar  to  theirs  had  spread 
throughout  the  entire  region;  but  at 
a  later  date,  though  preceding  the 
advent  of  the  Spaniards,  a  new  style 
was  introduced.  The  proof  of  this 
is  seen  in  the  recent  explorations  by 
J.  Walter  Fewkes  among  the  ruins  of 
Sikyatki  and  among  the  Hopi 
Pueblos.  The  pottery  which  he  dis 
covered  was  of  quite  a  different  style 
and  color  from  that  of  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers,  and  contains  many  very 
interesting  mythologic  figures,  such 
as  the  man  eagle,  the  war  god,  the 
serpent  and  unknown  reptiles,  and 
the  germ  goddess,  as  well  as  the 
mountain  lion.  These  symbols  show 
that  a  mythology  arose  among  the 
Pueblos,  which  did  not  exist  among 
the  Cliff-Dwellers. 

Mr.  W,  H.  Holmes  speaks  of  the 
pottery  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  in  the 
following  terms: 

The    study    of    the     fragmentary  ware  DRILL  AND  BOW.| 

found  about  the  ruins  is  very  interesting,  and 

its  immense  quantity  is  a  constant  matter  of  wonder.  On  one  occasion, 
while  encamped  near  the  foot  of  the  Mancos  Canyon,  I  undertook 
to  collect  all  fragments  of  vessels  of  different  designs  within  a  certain  space, 
and  by  selecting  pieces  having  peculiarly  marked  rims,  I  was  able  to  say 
with  certainty  that  within  ten  feet  square,  there  were  fragments  of  fifty-five 
different  vessels.  In  shape,  these  vessels  have  been  so  varied  that  few  forms 
known  to  civilized  art  could  not  be  found.  Fragments  of  bowls,  cups,  jugs, 
pitchers,  urns  and  vases,  in  infinite  variety,  may  be  obtained  in  nearly  every 
heap  of  debris. 

•Papers  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America,— American  Series,— Vol.  IV.,  p.  553. 
f  This  relic  is  from  the  Zuni  Pueblo, 


312 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


The  art  of  ornamentation  seems  to  have  been  especially  cultivated,  as 
very  few  specimens  are  found  that  are  not  painted,  indented  or  covered 
with  raised  figures.  Indeed,  these  ornamented  designs  are  often  so 
admirable,  and  apparently  so  far  in  advance  of  the  art  ideas  of  these  people 
in  other  respects,  that  one  is  led  to  suspect  that  they  may  be  of  foreign 
origin.  This  suspicion  is  in  a  measure  strenghtened  when  we  discover  the 
scroll  and  the  fret  struggling  for  existence  among  the  rude  scrawlings  of 
an  artisan,  who  seems  to  have  made  them  recognizable  rather  by  accident, 
than  otherwise.  It  is  not  improbable,  however,  that  the  specimens  referred 
to  are  but  rude  copies  of  models  designed  by  more  accomplished  artists,  or 
procured  from  some  distant  tribes. 

No.  i.  represents  a  large  vessel  obtained  in  one  of  the  Mancos  Cliff 

houses.  It  is  of  the  corru 
gated  variety,  has  a  capacity 
of  about  three  gallons,  and 
was  probably  used  for  carry 
ing  or  keeping  on  hand  "a 
supply  of  water.  In  the 
specimen  figured  the  work 
man  has  begun  near  the  cen 
tre  of  the  rounded  bottom  and 
laid  a  strip  in  a  continuous, 
but  irregular,  spiral  (No.  3), 
until  the  rim  was  reached; 
indenting  the  whole  surface 
irregularly  with  the  finger. 
Two  small  conical  bits  of  clay 
have  been  set  in  near  the 
rim,  as  if  for  ornament.  Other 
specimens  have  small  spirals, 
while  others  have  scrolls,  and 
still  others  very  graceful  fes 
toons  of  clay  (Nos.  2  and  la). 
A  number  of  the  more  dis 
tinct  styles  of  indentation  are 
given  in  connection  with  this 
figure  (Nos.  3,  30,  3$,  y  and 

No.  4  is  a  bowl  restored 
from  a  large  fragment.  It  is 
painted  both  inside  and  out, 
and  the  designs  are  applied 
with  rather  more  than  usual 
care. 

Nos.    5,   50   and    5^    are 
prominent  among  the  orna 
mental  designs.     I  have  cor 
rected  the  drawing,  but  have 
introduced   no  new  element. 
No.  6  represents  a  very  usual  pattern  of  mug  or  cup.     It  is  of  the  ordi- 
dary  painted  ware,  and  is  made  to  contain  about  a  pint.     The  specimen  is 
not  entire. 

No.  7  is  apparently  a  pipe.  It  was  found  by  Mr.  Aldrich,  near  a  ruin 
on  the  San  Juan,  and  is  made  of  the  ordinary  potter's  clav;  it  is  two  inches 
in  length. 

No.  8  represents  part  of  an  ornamental  handle,  formed  by  twisting 
together  three  small  rolls  of  clay. 

No.  Q  represents  a  small  spoon  or  ladle.  Fragments  of  similar  implp- 
ments  are  quite  numerous. 

No.  10  is  a  portion  of  the  handle  of  some  small  vessel. 
As  to  whether  the  manufacture  of  pottery  was  carried  on  in  certain 
favorable  localities  only,  or  whether  each  village  had  its  own  skilled  work 
men  or  workwomen,  I  can  not  determine,  since,  as  previously  stated,  no 


POTTERY   DESCRIBED   BY  W.   H.   HOLMES. 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


313 


remains  of  kilns  or  manufactories  were  discovered.  The  forms  and  styles 
of  ornament  are  pretty  uniform,  which  is  to  be  expected  in  either  case, 
since  the  inhabitants  of  the  various  villages  must  ha\e  had  constant  com 
munication  with  each  other.* 

Mr.  Jackson  says  of  the  pottery  of  Mancos  Canon: 

All  who  have  ever  visited  this  region,  which  extends  from  the  Rio 
Grande  to  the  Colorado,  and  southwest  to  the  Gila,  have  been  impressed 


POTTERY    DESCRIBED    BY    W.    H.   JACKSON. 


with  the  vast  quantities  of  shattered  pottery  scattered  over  the  whole  land; 
sometimes  where  not  even  a  ruin  now  remains,  its  more  enduring  nature 
enabling  it  to  long  outlive  all  other  specimens  of  their  handiwork.  Tt  is 
especially  instructing,  a-;  enabling  us  to  see  at  a  glance  the  proficiency  they 
had  attained  in  its  manufacture  and  ornamentation,  displaying  an  apprecia 
tion  of  prooortion  and  a  fertility  of  invention  in  decoration,  that  makes  us 
al'-no^t  doubt  their  ante-Columbian  origin;  but,  nevertheless,  without  going 
into  the  details,  we  believe  them  to  antedate  the  Spanish  occupancy  of  this 
country,  and  to  o^ve  none  of  their  excellence  to  European  influences,  being 
very  likely  an  indigenous  product. 


*"A    Notice  of   the   Ancient  Remains  of  Southwestern  Colorado,  Examined    During  the 
Summer  of  1875,"  by  W.  H.  Holmes;  pp.  21,  22  and  23. 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


No.  i  is  ajar  from  the  valley  of  Epsom  Creek,  of  dark  gray  and  rather 
coarse  material,  without  color  or  glaze,  of  the  indented  and  banded  ware 
peculiar  to  the  ancient  artificers  only.  It  is  made  by  drawing  the  clay  into 
ropes,  and  then,  commencing  at  the  bottom,  building  up  by  a  continuous 
spiral  course,  each  layer  overlapping  the  one  under  it;  the  indentation  being 
produced  by  a  pressure  with  the  end  of  the  thumb,  and  by  a  slight  doubling 
up  of  the  cord  of  clay.  The  design  is  varied  by  running  several  courses 
around  quite  plain,  Its  diameter  was  18  inches,  with  the  same  height,  and 
9  inches  across  the  mouth.  For  so  large  a  vessel,  i}  was  very  thin,  not  more 
than  one-fomth  of  an  inch.  Inside,  the  surface  was  rubbed  perfectly 
smooth, 

Nos.  2,  3  and  11  are  restorations  from  well  preserved  fragments  of 
mugs  or  cups,  each  elaborately  ornamented  in  black  on  a  white  glazed 
ground;  the  last  one,  especially,  is  of  firm,  excellent  ware,  and  the  design  is 
put  on  with  great  precision.  The  first  two  are  3^  inches  in  diameter  and  4 
inches  high,  and  the  last  one  \l/2  inches  in  diameter  by  5  inches  in  height, 

No,  4  is  a  flat  disk  of 
pottery  for  covering  a  jar. 
No.  5  is  the  small 
jug  found  at  the  great 
cave  ruin  on  the  Rio  de 
Chelley;  it  is  3^  inches 
in  diameter,  of  dark  gray 
ware,  perfectly  round  and 
very  neatly  painted.  The 
handle  has  been  broken 
off,  but  leaving  the  marks 
where  it  had  been  at 
tached. 

No.  6  is  a  slightly 
oval-shaped  jar,io  inches 
in  diameter,  and  a  mouth 
t;  inches  wide,  with  the 
lip  rolling  over  suffici 
ently  to  attach  a  cord  to 
carry  it  by. 

No.  8  is  a  small  jug, 
with  side-handles  and 
narrow  neck,  4^  inches 
in  diameter  and  i% 
inch  across  the  mouth. 

No.   Q   is   a   cup    or 

dipper  from  Montezuma  Canyon;  bowl,  3^  inches  in  diameter;    handle,  4 
inches  long. 

No.  12  is  a  pitcher,  taken  from  a  grave  on  the  banks  of  the  San  Juan, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Mancos.  by  Captain  Moss.  In  the  same  find,  were 
other  similar  vessels,  some  polished  stone  implements  and  a  human  jaw 
bone.  The  ware  of  this  pitcher  is  a  coarse,  gray  material;  somewhat 
roughly  modeled,  but  of  fine  form  and  tasteful  decoration. 

No.  10  is  a  peculiar  vessel,  found  among  the  Moquis  or  Tegues.  They 
could  give  no  account  as  to  where  it  came  from,  or  who  made  it.  It  is 
probably  of  Zuni  manufacture.  The  material  is  rather  soft,  being  ea-ily 
cut  with  a  kni  e.  The  upper  portion  is  painted  or  glazed  white,  and  the 
lower  red;  the  figures  are  painted  in  red  and  black.  The  tallest  portion  is 
6  inches  in  height. 

No.  7  is  an  example  of  the  modern  work  of  the  Moquis  or  Tegues.  The 
material  and  workmanship  are  far  below  any  of  the  preceding  examples; 
approaching  them  onlv  in  its  ornamentation,  which  is  strictly  inventional, 
but  somewhat  bizarre.* 


JUG  MADE  FROM  COILED  WARE. 


*"A    Notice   of  the    Ancient   Ruins  in 
Juan,"  by  W.  H.  Jackson;  pp.  44-45. 


Arizona   and   Utah,  Lying   About   the    Rio   San 


RELICS  OF  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


315 


5.  The  collections  made  by  Mr.  Nordenskjold  while  explor 
ing  the  cliff  dwellings  are  important  in  this  connection.     He 
discovered  a   large  amount   of  pottery,  consisting  of   several 
kinds:    (i)   Coiled  ware;    (2)     plain    ware,    undecorated;     (3) 
plain,  with  indented  ornaments;  (4)  ware,  painted  in  red,  black 
and  white.      He  also  found  woven  and  plaited  articles;  wicker 
work;    mocassins;    plaited    ropes;    feather    cloth;   loom  woven 
nets;  a  whole  jacket  of  skin,  found   in   a   grave;   several  skin 
pouches;  cord  wrapped  in  a  thong  of  hide;   necklaces  of  shell; 
a  head-dress  of  feathers,  tied 
in  rows,  designed  for  plumes; 
cotton  cloth;    a  belt  or  head 
piece,  made   with   a  wrap   of 
yucca  and  a  woof  of  cotton; 
a  double- woven  band;  a  bag 
or  pouch,  made  from  the  skin 
of  a  prairie   dog,   filled  with 
salt,    and    sewn    together    in 
such  «a    manner    as    to    leave 
the    hole,   corresponding    to 
the  mouth  of  the  animal;  also 
a  necklace  of  turquoises  and 
white  beads,  which  were  per 
forated;  a  black  bead  of  jet, 
found     at    Spring    House;    a 
cylinderof  polished  hematite; 
a  mummy,  shrouded  in  a  net 
work  of  cord  with  thongs  of 
hide,    and    the    feet    clad    in 
mocassins    of    hide;      also   a 
large  piece   of   feather   cloth 
wrapped  around  the  skeleton 
of  a  child,  and,  at  Step  House, 
a  shroud  of  feather  cloth. 

At  this  place,  he  found  a  large  vase  of  coiled  ware,  holding 
twenty-five  litres;  also  a  jar  in  a  net  of  yucca;  a  large  jar  with 
a  tasteful  indented  pattern  in  triangles;  a  large,  shallow  bowl, 
ornamented  with  regular  designs;  and,  at  Spring  House,  an 
oblong  vessel,  probably  a  lamp.  It  resembled  a  bowl,  but  had 
two  loops  on  the  top,  designed  to  be  held  with  cords  and  hung 
to  the  wall.  There  were  cotton  wicks  placed  in  the  opening 
or  mouth.  He  also  discovered  a  ladle  with  handles;  black  and 
white  bowls,  encircled  by  a  black  line  and  black  streaks  running 
obliquely  down,  making  a  step  pattern;  bowls  with  a  black 
pattern  on  a  white  ground;  a  large  bowl  with  a  meander  pat 
tern  and  parallel  lines,  executed  with  great  skill ;  a  bowl  with  an 
especially  handsome  ornament  in  black  on  a  gray  ground; 
a  large  bowl  with  a  black  ornament  on  a  white  ground,  with  a 
handsome  meander. 


PUEBLO  WOMAN  WITH  POTTERY  JAR.* 


*This  cut,  representing  a  modern  Zuni  women  wiih  pottery  jar  on  her   head,  is    given    to 
how  the  contrast  between  the  Cliff-Dwellers'  pottery  and  that  of  the  modern  Pueblos. 


316  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

At  Step  House,  he  found  a  bowl  with  a  suastika  on  the 
outside,  with  white  diamonds  and  black  spots  on  the  inside; 
this  was  in  a  grave;  also  a  fragment  of  a  large  bowl  with  a 
suastika,  and  a  scroll  in  black  with  a  large  leaf  in  black  and 
gray;  also  a  mug,  ornamented  in  black  and  white;  spoons  with 
ornaments,  some  running  parallel,  others  with  transverse  bars; 
a.  large  spherical  jar  and  ladles  and  dippers;  one  beautiful  jar 
of  red  ware,  with  spiral  coils,  perfect  in  form  and  design;  its 
fine  details  and  coils  executed  with  great  care,  the  figures  in 
curved  and  spiral  lines.  These  finds  by  Mr.  Nordenskjold  are 
very  important,  especially  of  the  red  ware  and  of  the  suastikas. 

Some  maintain  that  the  Cliff-Dwellers  were  a  very  ancient 
people,  and  were,  in  fact,  the  ancestors  of  the  Aztecs,  and  that 
the  famous  migration  from  the  Seven  Caves,  described  by  the 
Mexican  picture  records,  was  from  this  region.  Others  main 
tain  that  they  were  quite  modern,  and  were  the  same  as  the 
Pueblos,  and  occupied  the  cliffs  as  resorts  while  cultivating  the 
soil  and  remained  there  until  after  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards. 
The  examination  of  the  relics  gathered  from  the  cliff  dwellings, 
however,  disproves  both  of  these  positions. 

There  is,  in  the  first  place,  not  a  single  ornament  which 
resembles  those  used  by  the  Aztecs,  and  the  ordinary  relics  are 
of  a  very  different  character.  In  the  second  place,  most  of  the 
pottery  is  entirely  different  from  that  used  by  the  modern 
Pueblos,  and  lacks  the  symbols  and  ornaments  which  are  sup 
posed  to  have  been  introduced  among  them  late  in  their  history. 
They  give  no  evidence  of  contact  with  the  white  man. 
There  are,  to  be  sure,  such  symbols  as  the  suastika,  the  Greek 
fret,  the  Egyptian  tau,  the  scroll,  the  volute  and  the  stepped 
figure  which  are  common  in  oriental  countries,  but  these  are 
world-wide  in  their  distribution,  and  seem  to  be  almost  universal. 

We  conclude  that  the  Cliff-Dwellers  received  them  from  the 
same  source  that  the  Mound-Builders  of  the  Mississippi  valley 
and  the  civilized  tribes  of  the  southwest  did.  The  stepped 
figure  is  not  found  among  the  mounds,  but  nearly  all  the  other 
symbols  are.  The  plumed  serpent  is  especially  prominent. 

These  same  symbols  are  very  common  among  the  Pueblos, 
but  in  addition  to  them  there  are  many  figures  which  seem  to 
have  had  a  later  origin,  perhaps  were  introduced  after  the 
advent  of  the  Spaniards. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


AGRICULTURE    AMONG    THE     PUEBLOS    AND 
CLIFF-DWELLERS. 

There  is  one  question  connected  with  the  Cliff-Dwellers, 
which  to  some  has  been  difficult  to  answer,  namely,  how  does 
it  happen  that  they,  in  the  midst  of  their  strange  surroundings, 
should  be  so  superior  to  the  wild  tribes  which  have  for  many 
generations  infested  the  region  ?  This  can  not  be  ascribed  to 
any  natural  superiority,  for,  so  far  as  known,  they  were  quiet 
people,  and  somewhat  sluggish  in  their  habits,  and  manifested 
much  less  energy  and  strength  than  the  people  they  considered 
their  enemies.  Some  have  accounted  for  it  on  the  ground 
that  there  was  here  an  inherited  civilization,  one  which  had  been 
introduced  from  the  regions  far  to  the  southwest — Mexico,  or 
possibly  Nicaraugua,  the  signs  of  which  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
ancient  ruins  at  Quemada  and  the  Casas  Grandes  in  Sonora. 

The  key  to  the  problem,  however,  is  undoubtedly  furnished 
in  the  fact  that  the  Pueblos  and  the  Cliff-Dwellers  alike  were,  and 
had  been  from  time  immemorial,  agriculturists,  and  this  led  them 
to  a  sedentary,  life  which  would  naturally  result  in  their  continued 
improvement,  and  so  produced  the  same  contrast  between  them 
and  their  neighbors  that  exists  elsewhere  between  the  civilized 
and  the  uncivilized. 

It  is  certain  that  they  were  so  thoroughly  given  to  agri 
culture,  that  they  continued  it  under  the  most  unfavor 
able  circumstances,  even  when  driven  to  the  greatest  straits  from 
the  constant  presence  of  an  enemy  which  threatened  to  attack 
their  homes,  and  were  often  successful  in  destroying  their  crops 
and  so  depriving  them  of  their  common  subsistence.  In  this 
they  differed  from  the  wild  tribes,  who  were  hunters  and  had  no 
permanent  dwelling  place,  but  were  nomads  and  wandered  from 
place  to  place,  according  as  the  spirit  moved  them.  This  pecu 
liarity  was  noticed  by  the  Spaniards  when  they  first  reached  the 
region,  although  at  that  time  the  contrast  between  them  and  the 
wild  tribes  did  not  strike  them  as  forcibly  as  it  has  others,  for 
they  came  from  a  region  where  a  sedentary  life  was  common  and 
agriculture  was  the  rule,  rather  than  the  exception.  To  the 
American  explorers,  it  was  more  of  a  surprise,  for  they  were 
accustomed  to  the  ways  of  the  hunters  and  considered  all  of  the 
aborigines  in  the  light  of  nomades  who  occasionally  resorted  to 
agriculture  as  merely  incidental  to  the  hunter  life. 

The  modern  archaeologists  understand  that  this  furnishes  the 
clew  to  the  whole  problem  of  society  as  it  existed  among  both 


318  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

the  Pueblos  and  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  and  fully  accounts  for  the 
difference  between  them  and  the  people  who  were  besieging 
them.  It  is  well  known  that  the  three  stages  of  savagery,  bar 
barism  and  civilization  are  attended  by  different  modes  of  life 
and  different  means  of  subsistence,  and  that  the  savages  are  gen 
erally  nomads,  that  agriculture  is  distinctive  of  barbarism,  and 
that  dwelling  in  cities  is  frequently  a  sign  of  civilization. 

The  fact  that  the  Pueblos  were  practising  agriculture  raises 
them  above  others,  one  whole  stage  in  the  scale  of  human  pro 
gress.  It  is  not  often,  however,  that  the  lines  are  so  strongly 
drawn  and  the  contrast  so  marked  as  here.  It  is  like  the  mesas 
which  rise  above  the  level  of  the  valley  abruptly,  and  upon  the 
mesas  the  terraced  houses  are  sometimes  conspicuous  from  their 
very  height;  so  the  practice  of  agriculture  raises  the  people 
above  the  mass  of  humanity  which  was  still  held  in  the  low 
plains  of  savagery,  the  very  houses  which  were  erected  being  in 
contrast  to  the  huts  which  savages  occupied. 

Some  maintain  that  whatever  civilization  there  was  in  America 
in  prehistoric  times  was  owing  to  agriculture,  and  the  change 
from  the  nomadic  state  to  a  sedentary  life.  This  position  was 
held  by  Mr.  Morgan.  It  was  also  the  opinion  of  Baron  von 
Humboldt,  who  speaks  of  the  value  of  agriculture  in  main 
taining  the  original  population  and  keeping  it  up  to  a  high  stage 
of  development,  in  the  following  words  : 

If  at  the  commencement  of  the  empire  of  the  Incas  of  Peru  in  the 
cordiller^s  of  Quito  and  the  elevated  plains  of  New  Granda,  and  in  the 
Mexican  Anahuac,  the  population  has  maintained  itself  and  in  some  points 
even  considerably  increased,  the  cause  must  be  sought  in  the  fact  that  hun 
dreds  of  years  before  the  Spanish  Conquest,  the  population  consisted  of 
agricultural  tribes.  In  general  views  of  the  manifold  grades  of  intelligence 
manifested  by  those  who  are  so  vaguely  and  often  improperly  denominated 
savages,  the  imagination  is  carried  back  of  the  present  to  an  indefinite  past, 
in  which  the  greater  part  of  the  human  race  lived  in  the  same  condition  ; 
but  even  in  the  savage  state,  we  are  struck  by  signs  of  spontaneous  awak 
ening  in  intellectual  power,  in  the  knowledge  of  several  languages  and  the 
anticipation  of  a  future  existence,  and  in  traditions  that  boldly  rise  to  the 
origin  of  the  human  race  and  its  abode.  The  hordes  which  occupy  the 
country  between  New  Mexico  and  the  river  Gila,  especially  attract  our 
attention,  because  they  are  scattered  along  the  line  of  march  which,  in  the 
period  from  the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  centuries,  the  various  nations  known  as 
the  Toltecs,  Chicamecs,  Nahuas  and  Aztecs  proceeded,  when  they  traversed 
and  peopled  southern  tropical  Mexico. 

Memorials  remain  of  the  architectural  and  industrial  skill  of  the 
nations,  who  had  evidently  attained  a  high  degree  of  culture.  The  various 
stations  or  abiding  places  of  the  Aztecs  can  still  be  pointed  out  by  means 
of  historical  paintings  and  ancient  traditions,  and  the  large,  many-storied 
houses  seen  in  this  region  offer  analogies  as  to  the  mode  of  building  in  use 
amone:  the  southern  tribes. 

In  the  case  of  the  American  migrations  of  nations  from  north  to  south, 
might  not  single  tribes  have  remained  behind  north  of  the  Gila?  All  the 
conjectures  connected  with  this  bold  hypothesis  concerning  the  sources  of  a 
certain  amount  of  civilization,  evident  in  the  original  seats  of  wandering 
nations,  have  fallen  into  the  abyss  of  historic  myths.  Want  of  faith  in 
finding  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem,  must,  nevertheless,  not  be 
allowed  to  lessen  our  diligence,  or  set  limits  to  our  inquiries.  The  far  m  jre 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.         319 

extensive  and  flatter  eastern  regions,  though  covered  with  a  net  work  of 
rivers,  was  inhabited  only  by  savage  tribes,  isolated  and  scarcely  capable  of 
any  co-operation  for  a  warlike  undertaking,  and  maintaining  themselves 
wholly  by  hunting  and  fishing. 

I.  The  point  which  interests  us,  is  that  agriculture  was  so 
wide-spread  among  the  Pueblos.  This  was  the  one  thing  which 
made  the  difference  between  them  and  the  wild  tribes  which  have 
continued  to  inhabit  the  same  region.  This  is  illustrated  by  the 
facts  which  have  been  made  known  by  the  different  explorers 
who  passed  through  the  country  when  the  aborigines  of  both 
classes  were  occupying  the  region,  and  when  they  were  left  to 
their  natural  tastes,  without  the  restraining  influence  of  any 
army  or  the  presence  of  any  civilized  people. 

If  we  begin  with  the  regions  situated  on  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  pass  over  the  different  districts  towards  the  west  and  north, 
and  take  the  testimony  of  the  explorers,  we  shall  see  how  exten 
sive  agriculture  was  in  prehistoric  times  and  also  see  the  contrast 
between  the  Pueblos  and  Cliff  Dwellers  and  the  hordes  which 
invaded  their  territory.  We  shall  not  run  amiss  if  we  take  the 
testimony  of  any  of  those  who  belonged  to  the  exploring  expedi 
tions,  though  some  are  more  explicit  in  their  account  of  agricul 
ture  than  others.  We  shall,  therefore,  confine  ourselves  to 
such  accounts.  Mr.  B.  Mollhausen,  who  accompanied  the 
expedition  under  Lieutenant  Whipple,  has  given  some  excellent 
descriptions  of  the  Pueblos  and  the  deserted  villages  which  he 
saw,  but  he  has  also  spoken  of  the  practice  of  agriculture  as 
almost  universal.  He  first  visited  San  Domingo  and  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  there  saw  tne  method  of  cultivating  the  soil  by 
irrigation.  He  says: 

The  neighborhood  of  settlements  and  cultivated  lands  was  recognizable 
long  before  reaching  the  place,  by  the  canals  and  ditches  which  intersected 
the  new  lands  and  were  designed  to  carry  the  water  of  the  river  to  the 
plants  and  seeds,  for  without  such  measures,  it  would  be  scarcely  possible 
to  raise  the  most  scanty  harvest  under  the  arid  climate  of  New  Mexico. 
Flocks  of  marsh  and  water  birds  animate  the  fields  thus  irrigated,  and 
under  the  shelter  of  the  close  stalks  of  Indian  corn,  some  of  the  sportsmen 
get  effective  shots  among  them. 

The  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  is  closely  cultivated  in  many  parts,  from 
the  mouth  up  as  far  as  Taos.  The  inexhaustible  wealth  of  nature,  which 
renders  the  colonization  of  America  so  easy,  is  not  in  so  high  a  degree 
characteristic  of  New  Mexico,  and  in  some  places  there  are  great  deficiencies, 
but  the  fruitful  valleys  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  its  tributaries,  as  well  as  the 
mountains  rich  in  iron,  coal  and  gold,  are  profuse  enough  in  their  gifts,  not 
only  to  maintain  but  to  enrich  whole  nations  and  carry  them  to  the  highest 
point  of  civilization. 

The  Zuni  Indians  are  more  favorably  disposed  to  civilization  than  those 
of  any  other  Pueblo.  Besides  agriculture,  they,  or  rather  their  women,  are 
skillful  in  the  art  of  weaving  and,  like  the  Navajos,  manufacture  durable 
blankets.  The  pueblo,  with  its  terraced  houses,  elevated  streets,  numerous 
ladders  and  the  figures  climbing  up  and  down  them,  tame  turkeys  and 
eagles  sitting  upon  the  walls,  presented  an  interesting  picture,  and  still  more 
attractive  when  we  looked  back  upon  the  wide  plain,  stripped  of  its  harvest 
and  v,  ith  a  background  of  grand  masses  of  rock  and  blue  distant  mountains. 


320  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

In  speaking  ot  the  Colorado  Chiquito,  Mr.  Mollhausen  says: 

The  fertile  soil,' quite  capable  of  cultivation,  lay  on  both  sides  of  the 
river,  and  more  and  more  ruins,  in  such  quantities  as  to  afford  ground  for 
the  belief  that  a  wandering  race  of  a  remote  antiquity  had  possessed  exten 
sive  settlements  in  this  valley,  where  we  found  every  requisite  for  human 
subsistence,  pure  wholesome  water  and  fruitful  soil. 

The  ruins  described  by  Captain  Sitgreaves  lie  at  a  short  distance. 
They  are  obviously  the  remains  of  extensive  settlements  that  have  lain 
scattered  over  an  area  of  eight  to  ten  miles  about  the  valley,  and  which 
must  haye  been  at  one  time  a  thickly  peopled  district.  That  no  water  is 
found  near  -the  ruins  which  lie  farthest  from  the  river,  is  considered  suffi 
cient  to  account  for  their  abandonment.  It  is,  however,  scarcely  conceiv 
able  that  in  the  vicinity  of  a  river  that  is  never  dry,  there  could  be  a  want 
of  water,  or  that  the  industrious  people  could  allow  their  reservoirs  to 
become  choked.  It  is  more  probable  that  a  general  emigration  under  the 
repeated  attacks  of  Indian  tribes  occasioned  the  abandonment  of  these 
numerous  towns.  It  must  strike  everyone  that  the  more  southerly  ruins 
manifest  greater  culture  and  experience  in  their  builders,  and  also  indicate 
that  their  towns  and  settlements  were  more  thickly  populated  and  inhabited 
for  a  long  time. 

Mr.  Brackenridge,  who  visited  the  mounds  and  monuments 
opposite  St.  Louis,  called  Cahokia  Mounds,  and  gave  the  earliest 
description  of  them,  has  also  furnished  a  description  of  the  pueblo 
tribes  situated  in  New  Mexico,  and  especially  of  their  build, 
ings,  which  he  called  "castles,"  and  of  their  agricultural  habits. 
He  says : 

Their  habits  and  character  were  entirely  the  reverse  of  a  migratory 
people.  These  habits  fixed  them  permanently  in  the  spots  which  they 
occupied.  There  never  was  a  people  less  fitted  for  migration  than  the 
occupants  of  the  Castle  Cibola.  It  will  strike  most  readers  as  a  singular 
fact  that  there  should  be  found  in  America  a  land  of  ''castles,"  with  suc 
cessive  platforms  like  those  of  Babylon,  and  rising  to  the  height  of  seven 
stories,  like  the  pagodas  of  China.  They  were  not  permanent  works,  like 
those  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  nor  were  they  the  abodes  of  feudal 
chiefs;  on  the  contrary,  they  were  places  of  defense  occupied  by  an  indus 
trial  population,  ruled  by  councils  of  elders,  and  exposed  to  the  war-like 
depredations  ot  the  nomadic  savage  tribes  which  lived  on  the  buffalos 
which  swarmed  in  vast  numbers  in  the  regions  of  the  north. 

There  were  no  divisions  of  streets,  but  the  houses  were  raised  one 
above  the  other  in  stories  or  stages,  the  roofs  projecting  over  those  below, 
forming  sheltered  galleries  with  doors  entering  into  separate  apartments. 
The  castles  rise  from  three  to  seven  stories  on  a  solid  basement  ten  feet  in 
height  to  which  there  was  no  entrance,  thus  serving  for  defense  against  their 
enemies.  A  fertile  valley  capable  of  being  irrigated  was  chosen  for  the  site 
of  the  castle,  where  they  cultivated  squashes,  beans  and  also  a  little  cotton 
for  their  domestic  fabrics.  Their  canals  for  irrigation  and  supply  of  water 
were  of  great  extent.  No  domestic  animals  were  used. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  towns  were  dependent  upon  any  central 
government,  or  in  any  way  connected  by  leagues;  the  government  was 
uniformily  one  which  was  confined  to  villages  or  castles. 

The  following  extract  from  Mr.  Birtlett's  work  will  give  us 
an  idea  of  the  ruins  and  villages  on  the  Gila  and  the  Salinas,  as 
well  as  the  Pima  villages  which  were  visited  by  Coronado,  as 
well  as  the  irrigating  contrivances  which  prevailed  here.  He  says : 

In  every  direction,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  are  seen  heaps  of  ruined 
edifices  with  no  portion  of  their  walls  standing.  One  thing  is  evident,  and 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.         321 

that  is,  that  at  some  former  period,  the  valley  of  the  Gila,  from  this  ruin  to 
the  western  extremity  of  the  rich  bottom  land  now  occupied  by  the  Pimas 
and  Maricopas,  as  well  as  the  broad  valley  of  the  Salinas,  for  upwards  of 
forty  miles,  was  densely  populated;  the  ruined  buildings,  the  irrigating 
canals — some  of  them  twenty  feet  wide,  the  vast  quantities  of  pottery,  show 
that,  while  they  were  an  agricultural  people,  they  were  much  superior  to  the 
present  uncivilized  tribes,  'J  heir  civilization  extended  far  beyond  the  dis 
trict  named.  From  information  given  by  Leroux,  it  appears  that  ruins  of 
the  same  sort  exist  on  the  San  Francisco  or  Verde  River. 

There  is  one  fact  which  I  regard  as  of  importance  in  forming  a  con 
jecture  about  this  people.  This  is  the  cultivation  of  the  cotton  plant  and 
the  use  of  cotton  in  the  domestic  fabrics.  This  plant  was  not  known  to  the 
Northwest  Indians,  and  is  nowhere  indigenous  beyond  the  tropics,  whence 
they  derived  it.  Was  it  from  Mexico  or  Peru?  There  was  no  intercourse 
between  ihis  region  and  Mexico,  4l"his  fact  has  the  appearance  of  pointing 
to  an  Asiatic  origin,  the  strongest  argument  being  that  the  earliest  races  of 
America  are  uniformly  found  on  the  western  side  of  the  Continent,  and  not 
on  the  Atlantic  side. 

Major  Powell  draws  a  distinction  between  the  tribes,  such  as 
the  Utes,  Shoshones,  Shiwits,  Navajos  and  Apaches,  who  were 
hunters  and  fed  upon  the  flesh  of  animals  killed  in  the  fall,  and 
were  clad  in  skins  and  furs,  and  the  Pueblos,  who  lived  mainly 
upon  grain,  and  were  clothed  for  the  most  part  in  cotton  garments 
and  had  reached  a  higher  civilization.  He  says  of  the  Utes  : 

These  people  built  their  shelters  of  boughs  and  bark,  and  to  some 
extent  lived  intents  made  of  the  skins  of  animals.  They  never  cultivated 
the  soil,  but  gathered  wild  seeds  and  roots,  and  were  famous  hunters  and 
fishermen.  They  have  always  been  well  clad  in  skins  and  furs;  the  men  wore 
a  blouse,  loin  cloth,  legg  ngs  and  mocassins,  and  the  women  dressed  in 
short  kilts.  Sometimes  the  men  would  have  a  bear  or  elk  skin  for  a  toga, 
but  more  often  they  made  their  togas  by  piecing  together  the  skins  of 
wolves,  mountain  lions,  wolverines,  wild  cats,  beavers  and  otters.  The 
women  sometimes  made  theirs  of  fawn  skins,  but  rabbit  skin  robes  were 
far  more  common.  Cords  were  made  of  the  fibre  of  wild  flax  or  yucca 
plants,  and  around  these  cords,  strips  of  rabbit  skin  were  rolled  so  that 
they  made  long  ropes  of  rabbit  skin  coiled,  the  central  coil  of  vegetable  fibre, 
then  these  coils  were  rolled  into  para'lel  strings  with  cross  strings  of  fibre. 
The  robe  when  finished  was  about  five  feet  square,  and  made  a  good  toga 
for  a  cold  day  and  a  warm  blanket  for  night.  Neither  men  nor  women  wore 
a  head-dress,  except  on  festival  occasions  tor  decoration. 

He  says  of  the  Shoshones : 

The  region  from  Fremont  Peak  to  the-Uinta  Mountains  has  been  the 
home  of  Indians  of  the  Shoshonian  family  from  time  immemorial.  It  is  a 
great  hunting  and  fishing  region.  The  flesh  of  the  animals  killed  in  the 
fall  was  dried  for  summer  use.  The  seeds  and  fruits  were  gathered  and 
perserved  for  winter  use.  When  the  seeds  were  gathered,  they  were  win 
nowed  by  tossing  them  in  trays,  so  that  the  wind  might  carry  away  the  chaff; 
thev  were  roasted  in  the  same  trays.  Afterward  the  seeds  were  ground  on 
mealing  stones  and  moulded  into  cakes  that  were  stored  away  for  use  in 
time  of  need. 

The  Shiwits,  "people  of  the  spring";  the  Uinkirets,  "people  of  the 
Pine  Mountains,"  and  the  Unkakaniguts,  "people  of  the  red  lands,"  who 
dwell  along  the  Vermilion  Cliff,  are  found  on  the  terraced  plateaus  These 
people  live  in  shelters  made  of  boughs  piled  up  in  circles  and  covered  with 
juniper  bark,  supported  by  poles.  These  little  houses  are  only  large  enough 
for  half  a  dozen  persons,  huddling  together,  to  sleep.  Every  year  they  have 
great  hunts,  when  scores  of  rabbits  are  killed  in  a  single  day.  It  is  managed 
in  this  way:  They  make  nets  of  the  fibre  of  the  wild  flax  and  of  some  other 


322  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

plant,  the  meshes  of  which  are  about  an  inch  across,  into  which  they  drive 
the  rabbits.  A  great  variety  of  desert  plants  furnish  them  food,  as  seeds, 
roots  and  stalks.  More  then  fifty  varieties  of  such  seed-bearing  plants  have 
been  collected.  The  seeds  themselves  are  roasted,  ground  and  preserved 
in  cakes..  The  most  abundant  food  of  this  nature,  is  derived  from  the  sun 
flower  and  the  nuts  of  the  pinon.  They  will  make  stone  arrow  heads,  stone 
knives  and  stone  hammers,  and  kindle  fires  with  the  drill. 

In  speaking  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Kanab  River  and  the 
Vermilion  Cliffs,  in  the  heart  of  the  Grand  Canyon,  who  dwelt 
in  pueblos,  some  of  which  were  three  stories  high,  he  says: 

From  extensive  study  of  the  ruins,  it  seems  that  everywhere  tribal 
pueblos  were  built  of  considerable  dimensions,  usually  to  give  shelter  to 
several  hundred  people.  Then  the  people  cultivated  the  soil  by  irrigation, 
and  had  their  gardens  and  little  fields  scattered  at  wide  distances  about  the 
central  pueblos,  by  little  springs  and  streams,  and  wherever  they  could  con 
trol  the  water  with  little  labor  to  bring  it  on  the  land.  At  such  points  stone 
houses  were  erected,  sufficient  to  accommodate  from  one  to  two  thousand 
people,  and  these  were  occupied  during  the  season  of  cultivation  and  are 
known  as  rancherias.  Sometimes  the  rancherias  were  occupied  from  year 
to  year,  especially  in  time  of  peace,  but  usually  they  were  occupied  only 
during  seasons  of  cultivation.  Such  groups  of  ruins  and  pueblos,  with 
accessory  rancherias,  are  still  inhabited,  and  have  been  described  as  found 
throughout  the  Plateau  Province,  except  far  to  the  north  beyond  the  Uinta 
Mountains.  A  great  pueblo  once  existed  in  the  Uinta  Valley,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  mountains.  This  is  the  most  northern  pueblo  which  has  yet  been 
discovered.  But  the  pueblo-building  tribes  extended  beyond  the  area 
drained  by  the  Colorado.  On  the  west,  there  was  a  pueblo  in  the  Great 
Basin,  at  the  site  now  occupied  by  Salt  Lake  City,  and  several  more  to  the 
southeast,  all  on  waters  flowing  into  the  desert.  On  the  east,  such  pueblos 
were  found  among  the  mountains  at  the  head  waters  of  the  Arkansas, 
Platte  and  Canadian  Rivers.  The  entire  area  drained  by  the  Rio  Grande 
del  Norte  was  occupied  by  Pueblo  tribes,  and  a  number  are  still  inhabited. 
To  the  south,  they  extended  far  beyond  the  territory  of  the  United  States; 
and  the  so-called  Aztec  cities  were  rather  superior  pueblos  of  this  character. 
The  known  Pueblo  tribes  of  the  United  States  belong  to  several  different 
linguistic  stocks.  They  are  far  from  being  one  homogeneous  people,  for 
they  have  not  only  different  languages,  but  different  religions  and  worship 
different  gods.  The  Pueblo  people  are  in  a  higher  grade  of  culture  than 
most  Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States.  This  is  exhibited  in  the  slight 
superiority  of  their  arts,  especially  in  their  architecture.* 

Thus  we  see  from  the  reports  of  the  earliest  explorers  that, 
notwithstanding  the  great  number  ot  ruins  and  the  apparent 
aridity  of  the  soil,  agriculture  was  carried  on  through  the  central 
parts  of  the  Pueblo  territory,  especially  on  the  Rio  Grande,  the 
Little  Colorado  and  the  Gila  Rivers,  though  mainly  by  irrigation. 
There  seem  to  have  been  valleys  among  the  mountains  of  the 
north,  especially  along  the  Rio  San  Juan,  where  agriculture  was 
conducted  without  the  aid  of  irrigation,  for,  here,  the  rain  was 
precipitated  by  means  of  the  mountains  often  enough,  so  as  to 
supply  needed  moisture.  This  explains  the  pertinacity  with 
which  the  Cliff- Dwellers  clung  to  their  homes  hid  away  among 
the  mountains,  and  emphasizes  the  calamity  which  came  upon 
them  when  the  nomadic  hordes  invaded  their  possessoins. 

•"Canyons  of  the  Colorado,"  by  J.  W.  Powell;  pp.  109-111. 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.          323 

The  testimony  of  all  the  explorers  is  that  the  soil  here  is 
extremely  fertile  and  needs  but  little  cultivation  to  raise  excellent 
crops.  Mr.  Jackson  says: 

The  Rio  San  Juan  drains  a  great  interior  basin  covering  over  20,000 
square  miles,  as  well  as  several  great  mountain  masses  bordering  it.  The 
river  at  the  mouth  of  the  McElmo  has  an  average  width  of  fifty  yards,  and 
a  depth  of  four  to  six  feet.  The  water  is  warm  and  well  freighted  with  the 
soil  which  it  is  continually  undermining,  contrasting  strongly  with  the  ice- 
cold  tributaries  which  give  it  existence,  and  the  bottoms  are  from  three  to 
five  miles  in  width  and,  bordering  the  stream,  covered  with  dense  growths 
of  cottonwoods  and  willows  The  broad  and  fertile  alluvial  lands,  well 
covered  with  grass,  prove  a  rich  agricultural  possession. 

The  Rio  de  Chelly  was  also  a  favorable  place  for  carrying  on 
agriculture.  Mr.  Mindeleff  says  of  it: 

Near  its  mouth,  the  whole  bottom  of  the  canyon  consists  of  an  even 
stretch  of  white  sand,  extending  from  cliff  to  cliff.  A  little  higher  up,  there 
were  small  areas  of  bottom  land  and  recesses  and  coves  only  a  foot  or  two 
above  the  bed  of  the  stream.  Still  higher  up,  these  became  more  abundant, 
forming  regular  benches  or  terraces.  At  Casa  Blanca,  the  bench  is  eight 
or  ten  feet  above  the  stream,  each  little  branch  canyon  and  cave  in  the 
cliffs  is  fronted  by  a  more  or  less  extensive  area  of  cultivatable  land.  These 
bottom  lands  are  the  cultivatable  areas  of  the  canyon  bottom,  and  their 
currents  and  distribution  have  dictated  the  location  and  occupation  of  the 
villages  now  in  ruins.  They  are  also  the  sites  of  all  the  Navajo  settlements. 
The  Navajo  hogans,  or  huts,  are  generally  placed  directly  on  the  bottoms, 
the  rums  are  always  located  so  as  to  overlook  them.  Only  a  very  small 
proportion  of  the  available  land  is  utilized  by  the  Navajos,  and  not  all  of  it 
was  used  by  the  old  villagers. 

The  horticultural  conditions  here,  while  essentially  the  same  in  the 
whole  Pueblo  region,  present  some  peculiar  features.  Except  for  a  few 
modern  examples,  there  are  no  traces  of  irrigating  works.  The  village 
builders  did  not  require  irrigation  for  the  successful  cultivation  of  their 
crops,  and  under  the  Indian  method  of  planting  and  cultivating,  a  failure 
to  harvest  a  good  crop  was  rare. 

As  to  the  climate  :  In  December,  it  becomes  very  cold  and  so  much  of 
the  stream  is  in  the  shade  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  that  much  of  the 
water  becomes  frozen.  In  a  short  time,  great  fields  of  ice  are  formed. 
This,  and  the  scant  grazing  afforded  by  the  bottom  lands  in  winter,  accounts 
for  the  annual  migration  of  the  Navajos;  but  these  conditions  would  not 
materially  affect  the  people  who  did  not  possess  domestic  animals,  but  were 
purely  agricultural.  The  stream  when  flowing  is  seldom  more  than  a  foot 
deep,  except  in  times  of  flood,  when  it  becomes  a  raging  torrent,  hence 
irrigation  would  be  impracticable,  nor  is  it  successful  here  for  extensive 
horticulture. 

These  statements  throw  light  upon  the  former  habits  of  the 
Cliff- Dwellers  of  the  Rio  San  Juan  and  show  conclusively  that 
they  had  their  permanent  abodes  in  these  canyons,  because  of 
the  fact  that  they  could  easily  secure  subsistence  here,  and 
because  they  became  attached  to  their  mountain  home.  The 
evidence  is  that  they  first  made  their  homes  here  as  a  matter  of 
choice  on  account  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  not  on  account 
of  the  dangers  with  which  they  were  surrounded.  After  the 
invasion  of  the  savages,  they  were  compelled  to  build  their 
houses  high  up  in  the  cliffs  for  the  sake  of  defense,  but  it  is 


324 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


likely  that  they  built  them  so  far  above  the  stream  in  order  to 
escape  the  .mountain  torrents  which  swept  through  the  valleys, 
even  before  the  savages  came  upon  them.  As  Mr.  Mindeleff  says: 

Canyon  de  Chelly  was  occupied  because  it  was  the  best  place  in  that 
vicinity  for  the  practice  of  horticulture.  The  cliff  ruins  there,  grew  out  of 
the  same  natural  conditions  that  they  have  in  other  places.  It  is  not  meant 
that  a  type  of  house  structure  was  invented  here,  and  was  transferred  sub 
sequently  to  other  places.  The  geological  topographical  environment, 
favored  their  construction.  From  a  different  geological  structure  in  other 
regions,  cavate  lodges  resulted;  in  other  places,  there  were  watch  towers, 
and  still  others,  single  rooms.  The  character  of  the  site  occupied  is  one  of 
the  most  important  evidences  to  be  studied  in  examination  of  the  rums  in 
the  Pueblo  country.  The  sites  here  are  all  selected  with  a  view  to  an  out 
look  over  some  adjacent  area  of  cultivable  land,  and  the  structures  erected 
were  industrial  or  horticultural,  as  well  as  military  or  defensive.  The  im 
mense  number  of  storage  cists  are  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the  conditions 
there,  The  storage  of  water  was  very  seldom  attempted.  A  large  propor 
tion  of  the  cists  were  burial  places.  As  a  rule,  they  are  far  more  difficult 
of  access  than  the  ruins. 

In  the  cliff  ruins  of  De  Chelly  we  have  an  interesting  and  most  instruc 
tive  example  of  the  influence  of  a  peculiar  and  sometimes  adverse  environ 
ment  on  a  primitive  people,  who  entered  the  region  with  preconceived  and 
fully  developed  ideas  of  house  construction,  and  left  it  before  these  ideas 
were  brought  fully  in  accord  with  the  environment,  but  not  before  they 
were  influenced  by  it. 

II.  The  question  arises,  whether  the  Cliff-Dwellers  had 
permanent  agricultural  settlements,  or  were  they  merely  farm 
ing  shelters,  used  by  the  Pueblos  who  lived  upon  the  mesas. 

I.  On  this  point,  it  may  be  well  to  examine  the  archi 
tecture  of  the  region  which  has  been  often  described,  and  con 
cerning  which  there  is  more  discussion  than  any  other,  namely, 
that  found  in  the  Rio  de  Chelly. 

This  valley  has  been  described  by  different  explorers,  com 
mencing  with  Col.  Simpson,  F.  T.  Bickford  and  Mr.  Mindeleff  and 
others,  each  one  of  whom  has  described  the  different  villages, 
especially  those  called  the  Casa  Blanca,  or  the  White  House,  the 
village  in  Mummy  Cave,  in  Canyon  del  Muerto,  and  one  on  the 
Banito. 

Mr.  Bickford  says  that  the  Canyon  de  Chelly  and  its  two 
principal  branches,  Monumental  Canyon  and  Canyon  del  Muerto, 
have  an  aggregate  length  of  more  than  forty  miles.  "  They  vary 
in  width  from  200  to  300  feet,  and  their  walls,  which  are  precipi 
tous  throughout,  are  from  8o:>  to  1,400  feet  in  height.  Through 
all  the  branches  there  run  streams  of  clear  water,  which  unite 
and  form  the  Little  Rio  de  Chelly.  The  soil  of  the  canyon  is 
fertile,  and  under  the  tillage  of  a  more  intelligent  race  would  bear 
rich  crops.  Though  not  comparable  in  grandeur  to  the  Grand 
Canyon  or  the  Yosemite,  it  is,  nevertheless,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  westtrn  canyons.  The  cave  villages  are  found 
sometimes  only  thirty  feet  from  the  level,  and  sometimes  800 
feet.  The  reason  why  such  sites  were  selected  does  not  fully 
appear.  The  conclusion  so  often  and  so  easily  reached,  is  that 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.          325 

they  were  places  of  refuge  from  the  attacks  of  the  invading  races. 
So  far  as  appearances  go,  they  seem  to  have  been,  not  the  places 
of  occasional  retreat,  but  the  regular,  permanent  dwelling  place 
of  their  builders.  The  traces  of  fires  are  found  in  the  ruins. 
Rock  paintings  abound,  and  hundreds  of  shapes  of  human  hands 
are  found  adorning  some  of  the  roofs  of  the  now  inaccessible 
caves.  Symbols  are  frequent,  the  dragon  fly,  the  rainbow,  the 
sun,  objects  of  reverence  to  the  living  Pueblos.  Few  animals 
are  pictured,  the  elk,  the  antelope  and  the  red  deer  being  the 
most  numerous. 

"  The  most  remarkable  group  of  ruins  is  found  in  a  branch  of 
Monumental  Canyon,  and  is  about  700  feet  above  the  bottom  of 
the  canyon,  which  is  very  narrow.  The  finest  group  of  ruins, 
though  not  the  largest,  and  probably  the  best  specimen  of  the 
handiwork  of  the  Cave-Dwellers  in  existence,  is  known  as  the 
White  House.  Its  site  is  a  cave  whose  floor  is  about  thirty 
feet  from  the  bottom  of  the  canyon,  and  is  accessible  only  by 
rope-climbing  up  the  vertical  face  of  a  perfectly  smooth  precipice. 
The  first  line  of  structures  have  their  fronts  flush  with  the  preci 
pice;  their  position,  together  with  their  little  loop  hole  windows 
and  irregularly  castellated  tops,  suggesting  that  they  were 
designed  as  the  outer  line  of  a  strong  fortress.  Rising  above 
this  line,  are  seen  the  walls  of  an  inner  and  smaller  structure, 
which,  being  painted  white,  forms  a  conspicuous  and  attractive 
feature  in  a  most  remarkable  landscape.  Above,  900  feet  of 
smooth,  bellying  rock  so  overhangs  the  place  that  a  plumb-line 
from  its  crest  would  pass  about  seventy  feet  in  front  of  the  outer 
most  wall  of  the  old  village.  The  cave  has  a  lateral  reach  ot 
ninety  four  feet,  and  a  depth  of  forty  feet.  The  ruin  is  called  by 
the  Navajos  something  which  signifies  "the  abode  of  many 
captains."  It  is  the  only  painted  cave  dwelling  of  which  we 
have  any  knowledge.  Dados,  with  borders  of  saw  teeth  and 
rows  of  dots,  all  in  yellow  paint,  adorn  the  rooms,  the  alignment 
of  which  is  better  and  the  plastering  smoother  than  usual. 
There  are  seventeen  rooms  in  the  cave. 

4<  The  largest  group  of  ruins  in  this  vicinity,  and  probably  the 
largest  of  its  class — cave  dwellings  of  masonry — in  the  world,  is 
that  discovered  by  Stevenson.  It  is  found  near  the  head  ot 
Canyon  del  Muerto,  and  is  known  as  Mummy  Cave,  from  the 
fact  that  its  discoverer  found  near  it  an  undisturbed  cist,  from 
which  he  removed  a  well  preserved  mummy.  The  southern 
wall  of  the  canyon  here  retreats,  forming  a  wide,  shallow  bay, 
around  which,  at  the  height  of  about  200  feet  from  the  bottom, 
there  extends  a  sloping  shelf  which  was  terraced  by  the  ancients 
to  make  the  foundation  of  their  village.  The  crest  of  the  preci 
pice  extends  far  enough  to  cover  the  entire  group,  which  was 
probably  the  home  of  more  than  a  thousand  individuals.  The 
terrace  and  all  that  stand  upon  it  has  fallen  away,  and  no.v  forms 


326  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

part  of  an  immense  mass  of  debris,  which  makes  the  cave 
more  easily  accessible.  Only  those  walls  remain  which  are 
founded  upon  the  solid  rock  at  the  back  of  the  cave,  and  many 
of  these  show  little  more  than  the  foundation  lines.  The  evi 
dence  of  an  aristocracy,  or  controlling  class,  is  here  very  striking. 
The  cave  is  shaped  like  two  unequal  crescents  joined  end  to  end, 
and  the  apartments,  or  rather  cells,  of  the  two  portions  are 
small  and  of  irregular  form,  following  the  conformation  of  the 
rock.  At  the  point  of  junction,  however,  covering  almost 
entirely  the  narrower  shelf,  there  stands  a  rectangular  tower, 
three  stories  in  height ;  the  rooms  of  which,  as  well  as  those  in 
its  immediate  neighborhood,  are  larger,  and  the  walls  and  floors 
much  better  in  construction  than  those  upon  either  side.  The 
tower  commands  the  village,  as  feudal  towns  were  commanded 
by  the  castles  of  their  lords." 

2.  The  distribution  of  kivas  in  the  ruins  of  De  Chelly  affords 
another  indication  that  the  occupancy  of  the  region  was  perma 
nent.  The  position  of  the  kivas  in  some  of  .the  settlements  on 
defensive  sites,  and  their  arrangement  across  the  front  of  the 
cave,  suggests  at  first  sight,  that  they  were  used  for  outlooks 
and  their  occupancy  by  villages  came  at  a  later  period.  Kivas 
are  found  only  in  permanent  settlements.  They  are  sacred 
chambers  in  which  the  civil  and  religious  affairs  of  the  tribe 
were  transacted.  They  also  formed  a  place  of  resort  or  club  for 
the  men.  Their  functions  are  many  and  varied.  It  seems  to 
have  been  a  common  requirement  in  the  Pueblo  country  that  the 
kivas  should  be  wholly  or  partly  underground,  but  the  greatest 
care  was  bestowed  upon  their  construction  and  finish ;  the 
interior  was  plastered  with  a  number  of  coats  and  was  orna 
mented  with  markings  and  symbols  in  the  shape  of  bars  or  bands 
and  triangles,  which  were  of  a  ceremonial,  rather  than  of  a 
decorative  origin.  Chimney-like  structures  were  used  for  venti 
lation,  showing  that  the  kivas  were  occupied  permanently  by  the 
men.  Circular  rooms,  built  and  arranged  on  the  same  plan, 
with  exceedingly  slight  variations  in  size  and  construction, 
reappear  in  every  cliff  dwelling,  except  the  smallest  one. 

Ventilation  by  the  introduction  of  fresh  air  on  a  low  level, 
striking  on  a  screen  a  little  distance  from  the  inlet,  and  being 
thereby  evenly  distributed  over  the  whole  chamber,  is  a 
development  in  house  construction  rarely  reached  by  our  own 
civilization.  A  stone  pier  at  the  opening  of  the  ventilator, 
and  between  it  and  the  fire,  constantly  brings  into  the  kiva 
the  fresh  air.  The  entrance  is  always  at  the  top,  and 
is  generally  kept  open.  This  makes  a  draft  which  carries 
off  the  foul  air  from  below,  which  would  be  an  absolute 
necessity,  for  the  men  and  boys  are  alawys  congregated 
in  the  kivas  in  great  numbers,  and  make  it  their  sleep:ng 
place. 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS. 


327 


.3  The  number  of  storage  cists  found  near  the  cliff  dwell 
ings,  prove  that  they  were  permanently  occupied.  These  have 
been  referred  to  by  all  the  explorers,  from  Jackson  and  Holmes 
down  to  Mindeleff  and  Matthews.  Mr.  Jackson  speaks  of  store 
houses  which  were  placed  high  up  in  the  cliffs  in  the  Mancos 
Canon,  above  the  cliff  dwelling  called  the  "  Sixteen-windowed 
House."  These  were  reached  by  climbing  the  side  of  the  cliff 
at  one  end  of  the  ledge,  and  then  passing  from  one  store  house 
to  another.  There  were  remains  of  corn  and  beans  and  other 
products  in  these  store  rooms,  so  that  one  is  called  the  fire  room; 
another,  the  bean  room,  and  another,  the  corn  room. 

The  people  dwelt  in  the  rooms  which  were  built  on  the  lower 
ledge,  and  had  their  separate  apartments,  which  extended  back 
to  the  rock  and  were  lighted  by  the  windows 
in  front.  A  round  room,  with  a  narrow 
passage-way,  or  flue,  near  the  floor,  was 
undoubtedly  the  estufa  furnished  with  a  ven 
tilator,  after  the  plan  of  other  estufas  in  the 
region.  The  only  court  in  this  village 
was  at  the  end  of  the  ledge,  and  just  below 
the  stairway  which  led  up  to  the  store  rooms. 
Running  water  was  found  within  a  few 
yards  of  this  group  of  houses. 

Mr.  Jackson  speaks,  also,  of  the  store 
rooms  or  cists  scattered  along  the  cliffs  near 
the  Montezuma  and  the  Hovenweep.  He 
calls  them  cubby  holes  and  rock  shelters, 
and  speaks  of  them  as  occurring  in  all  sorts 
of  positions,  from  the  level  of  the  valley  to 
the  height  of  over  100  feet,  and  from  the 
smallest  kind  of  a  cache,  not  larger  than  a 
bushel  basket,  to  buildings  that  sheltered 
several  families.  Some  of  them  were  little, 
walled- up,  circular  orifices  in  the  rock, 
generally  inaccessible;  but  many  were 
approached  by  steps,  or  rather  small  holes,  cut  in  the  rock  so  as 
to  enable  the  climber  to  ascend,  as  if  by  a  ladder.  The  steps 
leading  up  to  them  show  that  they  were  considerably  used,  and 
were  probably  resorted  to  by  the  house  wives  as  they  needed 
the  products  which  were  stored  away.  In  one  of  the  cave  dwell 
ings,  the  skeleton  of  a  human  being,  nearly  covered  with  the 
excrement  of  small  animals,  dust  and  other  rubbish,  which  cov 
ered  the  floor  a  foot  deep,  was  found. 

Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin  speaks  of  the  store  rooms  back  of  the  line 
of  houses  in  Cliff  Palace,  and  of  the  burial  places  which  were 
in  the  niches  of  the  rocks,  showing  that  the  people  were  so 
permanently  settled,  as  to  bury  their  deadin  the  midst  of  their 
houses.  He  speaks,  also,  of  a  little  isolated  room,  with  a  single 


STORAGE   CIST. 


328 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


window  for  an  entrance,  which  was  situated  on  the  upper  ledge 
of  Acowitz  Canon.  It  is  probable  that  this  was  used  both  as  a 
store  room  and  a  look-out  station.  It  was  very  difficult  to  reach 
and  was  perched  in  a  little  cleft,  high  up  in  the  side  of  the  cliff, 
where  it  constituted  one  of  a  second  group  of  buildings. 

Mr.  Mindeleff  mentions  the  store  rooms  in  the  Canon  de 
Chelly.  There  was  a  group  of  ruins  located  on  a  narrow  bench 
300  feet  above  the  canon  bottom  ;  access  to  the  upper  ledge  was 
exceedingly  difficult,  requiring  a  climb  of  almost  vertical  rock 
over  forty  feet.  At  the  northern  end  of  the  upper  ledge,  there 
arc  five  small  cells,  occupying  its  whole  width,  whose  iront  wall 
follows  the  winding  ledge.  These  cells  could  hardly  have  been 
used  as  habitations.  There  was  one  room  which  measured 

fifteen  by  five  feet,  which 
may  have  been  employed 
for  the  storage  of  water. 

He  also  speaks  of  the 
reservoir  for  the  storage 
of  water,  as  situated  at 
the  bend  of  the  river  and 
directly  above  the  stream, 
and  suggests  that  water 
may  have  been  drawn  up 


•CLIFF    VILLAGE    ON    DEL    MUERTO. 


from  the  stream  and  pour 
ed  into  the  reservoir  at  a 
dry  time.  It  constitutes  a 
part  of  a  cliff  village. 

A  granary  in  the  rocks 
is  described,  which  was 
reached  by  a  narrow  pass 
age-way  about  •  2,^/2,  feet 
wide,  and  was  protected 
by  two  small  rooms  on 
one  side,  and  by  the  village  itself,  on  the  other.  The  interior 
forms  a  convenient  dry,  airy  space. 

Another  village  on  the  Del  Muerto  is  situated  on  a  narrow 
ledge  nearly  400  feet  above  the  stream.  It  was  almost  inacces 
sible,  but  was  reached  by  climbing  up  the  rock  by  aid  of  hand 
and  foot  holes.  The  entrance  to  the  village  was  guarded  by  a 
room  whose  walls  were  pierced  by  oblique  loop  holes  for  the  dis 
charge  of  arrows.  The  site  commands  an  extensive  outlook  over 
the  canon  bottom,  including  several  areas  of  cultivable  land. 
Immediately  below  are  the  remains  of  a  large  settlement,  and 
nearby,  a  number  of  small  settlements,  connected  with  it.* 

4.  Another  proof  that  the  cliff  dwellings  were  permanent 
resdences,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  bodies  were  buried  and  relics 
deposited  in  such  great  numbers. 


•Sixteenth  Annual  Report  Ethnological  Bureau,  p.  132;  see  also  cut. 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.          329 

Nordenksjold  discovered  bodies  of  children  in  Johnson 
Canon  and  at  Spruce  Tree  House.  In  a  little  room  there  were 
five  bodies  with  arrows  lying  across  their  heads,  and  between  the 
skeletons  four  bows.  One  skeleton  lay  on  the  top  of  a  mat, 
with  a  bow  on  one  side  and  a  mug  and  a  basket  on  the  other;  a 
pair  of  mocassins  on  the  feet,  and  some  feather  cloth  under  the 
head.  After  taking  up  the  bodies,  a  large  mat  was  discovered 
covering  the  floor,  and  below  the  mat,  a  skeleton  with  a  medi 
cine-stick  and  two  prairie  dog-skin  pouches.  This  skeleton  was 
covered  with  a  willow  mat,  made  of  grass,  and  under  the  grass 
mat,  one  of  feather  cloth  ;  after  that,  a  buck-skin  jacket  with  a 
fringe. 

Mr.  Nordenksjold  also  speaks  of  the  wooden  implements 
used  for  planting  sticks;  of  the  baskets  and  pottery  vessels  used 
for  holding  grain  ;  of  the  textile  fabrics  which  were  made  from 
cotton;  of  the  mats  and  sandals  made  from  corn  leaves  ;  of  the 
ears  of  corn  found  in  the  ruins ;  of  the  corn  meal,  also  discovered 
in  small  quantities,  and  of  the  store  houses  where  the  corn  was 
stored,  and  other  tokens.  He  says:  "  The  most  common  imple 
ment  is  a  wooden  stick,  1.4  metre  long,  pointed  like  a  sword  at 
one  end,  and  often  furnished  with  a  round  knob  at  the  other. 
This  instrument  closely  resembles  the  stick  used  in  planting 
maize.  With  it,  a  hole  about  fifty  centimetres  deep  is  made  in 
the  ground,  and  a  kernel  of  the  maize  is  then  dropped  into  the  hole. 
The  implements  found  in  the  cliff  dwellings  were  probably  used 
in  the  same  manner.  They  also  served  as  spades  of  a  general 
character. 

"A  circumstance  which  bears  out  the  conjecture  that  these 
tools  were  used  as  planting  sticks,  is  that  the  custom  prevailed, 
both  among  the  Cliff-Dvvellers  and  the  Moquis,  of  laying  beside 
the  corpse  at  the  time  of  burial,  one  of  these  planting  sticks, 
considering  that  the  deceased  ought  not  to  enter  upon  his  new 
existence  without  this  important  adjunct  to  the  planting  of  maize. 
It  seems  that  the  same  idea  prevailed  among  the  Cliff-Dvvellers. 

"  As  a  rule,  the  maize  of  the  Cliff- Dwellers  is  smaller  in  ear 
than  that  cultivated  by  the  Indians  at  the  present  day.  It  was 
probably  grown,  partly  on  the  ruesa,  and  partly  on  the  more 
gradual  slopes,  which  were  sometimes  terraced.  After  the  har 
vest,  the  corn  was  stored  in  rooms  set  apart  for  this  purpose  in 
the  bottom  story  of  the  cliff  dwelling." 

Numerous  fragments  of  cotton  cloth  have  been  found.  The 
cotton  plant  was  probably  cultivated  by  the  cliff  people,  at  least 
in  some  localities,  for  cotton  seeds  have  been  found  in  the  cliff 
dwellings  of  southern  Utah,  and  cotton  garments  are  also  found. 
A  mat,  composed  of  withes  split  in  two,  held  by  the  stiff  cords 
of  yucca,  was  found  wrapped  around  a  corpse  in  a  grave  at  Step 
House  ;  a  woven  band,  used  in  carrying  bundles,  made  of  yucca 
and  cotton,  was  found  in  Ruin  No.  n,and  a  double- woven  band 


330  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

in  an  estufas  in  Ruin  No.  12;  pieces  of  cotton  cloth,  with  pat 
tern  woven  in  threads  of  dark  brown  color,  was  found  in  Mug 
House ;  a  large  basket  of  yucca  in  two  different  colors  was  found 
in  Spruce  Tree  House  ;  a  willow  basket,  tightly  plaited,  of  osiers, 
was  found  in  a  grave  at  Step  House,  and  a  basket,  coated  on  the 
outside  with  some  substance  to  make  it  water-tight,  was  found 
at  the  same  place. 

Marco  de  Nueva  in  1539,  was  told  by  the  Indians  of  a  great 
plain  of  about  thirty  days'  travel,  inhabited  by  people  living  in 
large  towns  built  of  stone  and  lime,  who  wore  cotton  garments, 
and  who  possessed  an  abundance  of  gold,  turquoises  and  emeralds. 
This  shows  that  cotton  was  cultivated  in  prehistoric  times  even 
by  the  natives  of  America,  and  that  agriculture  of  various  kinds 
was  practiced  by  the  Pueblos. 

.5     The  use  of  shrines  by  the  ClifT-Dwellers  is  evidence  that 


SHRINE    IN    SHAPE    OF    HUMAN    SKULL. 

they  made  permanent  homes  in  the  canyons,  and  depended  upon 
agriculture  for  subsistence.  Shrines  are  very  common  among 
the  Pueblos,  and  are  there  attended  by  peculiar  symbols,  such  as 
the  symbol  of  the  sun  and  moon,  the  suastika,  the  Nile  key,  the 
Egyptian  tau,  the  Greek  fret,  and  the  coil.  Dr.  J.  Walter  Fewkes 
has  recently  discovered  a  large  quantity  of  pottery,  which  con 
tains  some  new  and  rare  symbols,  among  them,  the  bird  figure 
and  reptilian  figures,  cloud  emblems,  spiral  designs,  arrows  of  a 
peculiar  type,  a  sun  emblem  with  white  rays  projecting  from  a 
black  circle,  the  rays  being  arranged  in  a  spiral  form,  but  having 
notches  in  them,  making  them  resemble  notched  plumes.  This 
might  be  called  the  whirling  sun.  These  symbols  are  supposed 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.          331 

by  some  to  have  been  introduced  among  the  Pueblos  later  than 
the  time  of  the  Cliff- Dwellers.  There  is  a  food  bowl  with  the 
figure  of  a  masked  dancer,  among  them.  This  food  bowl  was 
made  of  red  ware  with  black  lines.  The  pottery  was  taken  from 
a  ruin  near  the  Gila  River,  at  the  pueblo  Viego ;  also  at  Four 
Mile  Ruin,  and  near  Taylor  and  Pine  Dale,  similar  to  that  of  the 
Salado  River,  near  Tempe.  A  sacrificial  cave  was  also  discov 
ered  in  the  Graham  Mountain,  which  was  full  of  prayer  emblems. 
Fragments  of  basketry  were  found  with  prayer  sticks.  The 
symbols  on  the  decorated  pottery  of  the  pueblo  Viego  ruins  are 
the  same  as  that  further  down  the  Gila,  and  remotely  related  to 
the  Little  Colorado  and  its  tributaries. 

The  shrine  and  rock  inscriptions  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers*  are 
different  from  any  that  have  been  found  in  the  Pueblo  region. 
They  are  generally  placed  underneath  the  huge  bowlders  which 
are  common  in  the  valleys, 
and  are  large  enough  to 
afford  a  shelter  underneath 
them,  as  well  as  for  a  look 
out  or  tower  on  the  sum 
mit.  Mr.  Gunckel  'has  de 
scribed  several  of  them,  one 
of  which  had  a  wall  built 
up  around  the  base  of  the 
boulder,  inside  of  which 
was  space  enough  for  quite 
an  assembly  of  devotees, 
the  interior  ot  the  shrines  TOAD  STOOL  SHRINE. 

being  protected  by  shelving- 
rock,  which  projectes  over  the  shelter,  making  a  dark 
space  which  was  regarded  as  full  of  mystery  to  the  people  on 
account  of  its  shadows.  One  boulder,  which  was  used  as  a  shrine, 
wasjn  the  shape  of  an  immenseskull,  with  holes  in  the  rock,  repre 
senting  eyes.  This  was  called  Boulder  Castle  and  is  situated  two 
miles  from  the  mouth  of  McElmo,  and  half  a  mile  from  the  river. 
The  rock  is  fifty  feet  high,  in  the  midst  of  a  wild,  picturesque 
region,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  immense  sandstone  boulders; 
ruins  were  on  the  top  of  the  rock  which,  possibly,  may  have  been 
used  as  a  look  out.  The  room  below  sloped  back  to  a  few  inches 
in  height.  Back  of  the  boulder,  was  an  inclosure  seven  metres 
each  way.  Pictographs,  consisting  of  human  feet,  circles,  animals 
and  dumb  bell  figures,  were  found.  Above  Boulder  Castle  was 
a  large  cluster  of  ruined  houses  and  towers,  some  of  them  round; 
others,  square,  and  in  the  valley  were  springs  with  an  abundant 
supply  of  water.  The  pictographs  contained  the  same  symbols 
which  are  found  among  the  ruins  of  the  south — circles,  crescents, 
human  hands,  serpents  figures,  the  suastika,  and  the  coil. 

*  The  shrines  here  are  more  elaborate  than  those   among  the  Pueblos  further  south,  thongh 
they  remind  us  of  the  shrine  and  sacr«d  spnng  ot  the  Znnis. 


332 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


Another  shrine  described  by  Mr.  Gunckel  was  a  sandstone 
rock  in  the  shape  of  a  toad  stool;  flat  on  the  top,  the  shaft 
below.  A  wall  has  been  constructed  around  this  shaft,  leaving 
an  open  space,  which  may  have  been  used  as  a  shrine,  or  as  a 
double  circle,  or  as  a  place  of  religious  ceremony.  This  shelter 
cave  is  situated  in  Ruin  Canon,  fourteen  miles  from  McElmo. 
6.  The  erection  of  towers  and  cliff  dwellings  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  springs  and  lakes,  is  another  evidence  that  the  cliff 
dwellings  were  permanent  abodes.  Major  Powell  has  described 
ruins  situated  on  the  brink  of  Glen  Canon,  in  the  midst  of  the 

rocks  of  the  Grand 
Colorado  Canon.  Here 
was  a  tower  which  gave 
a  commanding  outlook, 
and  a  building  in  the 
shape  of  the  letter  L. 

The  most  remark 
able  tower,  is  the  one  at 
Montezuma  Castle,  first 
described  by  Dr.  VV.  H. 
Hoffman,  and  referred 
to  by  many  others.  He 
says,  that  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers  occupied  this 
valley  for  raising  crops 
and  for  agricultural  pur 
poses,  seems  evident 
from  the  fact  that  it  is 
the  only  favorable  dis 
trict  found  within  a  con 
venient  distance  of  the 
cliff  remains,  and  also 
the  nearest  patch  of  irri 
gable  land  upon  which 
we  find  any  traces  of 
former  occupation. 

An  interesting  place 
and  one  which  was  prob 
ably  used  as  a  perman 
ent  home,  is  that  called 
Montezuma  Wells,  on 

account  of  the  sunken  well  or  lake  which  exists  there.  It  is  in  the 
same  region  as  Montezuma  Castle,  and  has  been  regarded  as  an 
agricultural  settlement  ;  the  houses  which  were  here,  being 
placed  in  the  sides  of  the  cliffs  and  near  the  lake  or  pond  of 
clear  water,  for  the  sake  of  convenience.  It  was,  however,  near 
agricultural  land,  and  only  separated  from  the  land  by  a  narrow 
ridge  of  limestone,  through  which  there  was  an  opening  which 
made  a  convenient  gateway  to  the  fields.  Nowhere  else,  is  there 
such  a  strange  setting  of  a  cliff  village  as  here,  and  yet  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  a  permanent  settlement. 


MONTEZUMA     CASTLE. 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.          333 

Mr.  Lummis  says  :  "  This  sudden  well  in  the  gray  limestone 
is  about  eighty  feet  deep,  from  rim  to  water  level,  and  200  yards 
in  diameter.  The  walls  are  apparently  as  circular  as  man  could 
have  carved  them.  The  tar-black  lakelet  at  the  bottom  is  of 
an  unknown  depth — a  38o-foot  line  at  my  last  visit  (1891)  hav 
ing  failed  to  find  bottom.  On  the  side  where  Beaver  Creek  has 
eaten  into  the  hill,  there  is  left  only  the  thinnest  of  rims  to 
hold  the  k  well.'  Yet  between  the  creek  and  the  '  well,'  on  this 
knife-edge  rim  of  limestone,  are  huddled  the  ruins  of  one  of 
the  prehistoric  Pueblo  fort  houses.  A  crumbled  talus  of  ma 
sonry,  with  its  tallest  remaining  walls  not  to  exceed  eight  feet, 
it  is  yet  one  of  the  most  suggestive  types  of  the  ancient  regime 
when  the  few  first  American  farmers  and  home  makers  made 
head  against  the  outnumbering  vagrant  savages  and  niggard 
wilderness.  Below,  along  the  pinched  creek,  were  their  tiny 
irrigated  farms;  up  here,  on  the  ridge-pole  between  two  preci 
pices  was  their  communal  town  of  several  stories;  and  com 
manded  by  it,  their  last  retreat.  The  fort  house  absolutely 
controlled  the  only  reasonable  entrance  to  the  well;  the  only 
other  path  down  to  the  lake's  edge,  could  be  held  by  boys 
against  an  enemy."  * 

The  remarkable  specimens  of  cliff  villages,  or  cave  houses, 
are  those  discovered  by  Mr.  Carl  Lumholtz.  They  were  found 
in  the  midst  of  the  mountains  of  Mexico  These  caves  are 
situated  on  the  Piedras  Verdes,  6,850  feet  above  the  sea.  He 
says  : 

They  contain  groups  of  houses,  or  small  villages,  and  the  houses  are 
splendidly  made  of  porphry  and  show  that  the  inhabitants  had  attained  a 
comparatively  high  culture.  The  dwellings  were  sometimes  three  stories 
in  height,  with  small  windows  and  doors  made  in  the  form  of  a  cross  or  the 
letter  Xi  and  occasionally  there  were  stone  stair  cases.  The  relics  show 
that  these  people  cultivated  maize,  beans  and  cotton,  and  knew  the  use  of 
indigo. 

The  caves,  which  number  about  fifty  in  a  stretch  of  twenty  miles,  are 
from  100  to  200  teet  above  the  bottom  of  the  canyon,  and  the  largest  is  some 
fifty  feet  high.  At  the  entrance  of  one  of  the  cave  villages  we  were  aston 
ished  to  come  upon  a  huge  vessel  made  like  an  olla,  or  water  jar,  twelve 
feet  high  and  twelve  feet  in  diameter.  The  sides  of  it  were  eight  inches 
in  thickness  and  as  hard  as  cement,  the  frame  being  made  of  straw  ropes, 
coiled  and  plastered  outside  and  inside  with  porphy  pulp.  At  the  bottom 
was  a  three-foot  high  entrance,  through  which  a  person  could  crawl  in;  the 
top,  which  was  only  three  feet  wide,  was  also  open.  It  made  a  marvellous 
impression,  looking  at  a  distance  like  a  huge  balloon,  and  seen  nearby,  it 
was  as  fresh  as  if  made  a  week  before.  I  believe  it  was  for  the  storage  of 
maize.  In  one  of  the  other  caves  we  met  with  three  ruins  of  similar,  but 
smaller  vessels,  their  circular  bases  only  being  left.  There  were  built, 
also,  some  reservoirs  for  grain,  dug  down  in  the  bottom  of  the  caves.  In 
the  background  of  this  cave,  were  the  houses  built  in  complete  darkness. 
In  the  deepest  caves  the  houses  were  built  at  the  entrance,  while  in  the 
smaller  ones  the  houses  were  found  at  the  back.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  all 
the  caves  are  natural.! 


•  "  Montezuma's  Well  in  Land  of  Sunshine,"  by  Chas.  F.  Lummis. 

t  "  Report  of  Explorations  in  Northern  Mexico,"  by  Carl  Lumholtz.     Published  in   Bulletin 
American  Geographical  Society,  September  30,  1891. 


334  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Mr.  Lumholtz  speaks  of  the  Tarahumari,  a  wild  people,  who 
are  scarcely  raised  above  the  Troglodytes  in  their  social  con 
dition.  He  says  : 

They  are  much  inferior  to  the  Cliff  Dwellers;  their  pottery  is  exceed 
ingly  crude,  and  they  are  utterly  devoid  of  the  architectural  skill  exhibited 
in  the  remarkable  structures  of  the  northern  Cliff-Dwellers.  These  caves 
are  fitted  up  as  their  houses,  with  the  same  utensils,  grinding  stones,  baskets 
and  jars;  the  fires  in  the  middle  of  the  cave.  The  store  houses,  so  neces 
sary  to  the  household  lite  for  storing  corn  and  clothing,  is  never  missing  in 
the  caves.  They  are  built  of  stone  and  adobe  along  the  inner  walls,  and 
serve  as  big  closets.  These  store  houses  are  quite  an  institution.  They  are 
found  everywhere  in  remote  places,  perched  generally  on  high  rocks  or 
boulders.  Very  often  caves,  difficult  of  access  and  walled-in,  are  used  as 
store  houses. 

The  Tarahumaris,  according  to  their  own  tradition,  came  from  the 
north  and  east,  the  same  country  as  the  Apaches.* 

III.  The  most  remarkable  thing  about  the  agriculture  of 
the  Pueblos  and,  perhaps,  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  is  the  Snake  Dance 
and  its  connection  with  the  rain.  It  is  not  generally  known 
that  the  real  purpose  and  intent  of  this  dance  is,  to 
secure  rain,  and  that  it  is  a  prayer  to  the  rain  gods,  who  dwell 
in  the  clouds,  and  are  symbolized  by  lightning  and  the  clouds 
which  assume  the  shape  of  serpents.  To  the  white  man  this 
seems  far  fetched  and  purely  imaginary,  but  to  the  aboriginal 
mind,  there  was  always  an  unconscious  habit  of  associating 
supernatural  beings  with  the  natural,  making  the  material 
object  a  symbol  of  the  immaterial  force.  The  natural  powers 
and  the  supernatural  creatures  were  closely  related.  Their 
imagination  was  so  active  and  vivid,  that  they  recognized 
resemblances  which  would  escape  the  attention  of  ordinary 
minds,  and  their  superstition  changed  the  resemblance  into 
realities. 

There  were  three  ways  in  which  they  expressed  their  beliefs 
and  made  known  their  wants;  all  of  which  might  be  called 
prayers.  The  first  was  by  a  symbolic  picture;  the  second  was 
by  an  image  decorated  with  various  symbols  and  ornaments, 
and  the  third  was  by  a  sacred  drama  in  which  the  divinities 
were  personified.  Under  the  first  head  may  be  embraced  the 
sand  paintings  or  mosaics,  in  which  the  rain  clouds,  the  light 
ning,  the  sky,  the  sun  and  the  nature  powers  were  all  repre 
sented.  The  sacred  screens  also  represented  the  same  elements. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  corn  is  also  represented  in  connection 
with  these  screens  and  altars.  Among  the  Navajos,  not  only 
corn,  but  beans,  vines  and  other  plants  are  represented  as  under 
the  care  of  certain  divinities. 

Under  the  second  head,  must  be  included  the  great  number 
of  dolls  which  abound  among  the  Pueblos,  and  are  supposed 
to  have  a  remarkable  significance.  They  are  decorated  with 
feathers,  which  symbolize  the  clouds,  and  have  others  symbols 
of  the  rains  and  nature  powers. 

*"  American  Cave-Dwellers;  the  Tarahumaris  of  the  Sierra  Madre,"  by  Carl  Lumholtz 
u  blished  in  the  Bulletin  American  Geographical  Society,  September  30,  1894. 


THE    SNAKE    DANCE    AT   ORA1B1. 


THE   SNAKE   DANCE   AT   ORA1BI. 


336  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Under  the  third  head,  may  be  embraced  all  the  sacred 
dramas  in  which  are  the  sacred  myths  and  legends  which  have 
been  inherited  and  are  embodied  in  elaborate  ceremonies,  and 
are  personified  by  men,  women  and  children,  who  take  part  in 
the  dances  and  songs. 

The  myth  which  lies  back  of  the  so-called  Snake  Dance,  is 
one  that  relates  to  some  event  in  the  early  history  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  is  connected  with  the  scarcity  of  rain.  It  is  a  myth, 
which  is  told  by  the  Tusayans  in  reference  to  their  ancestors, 
but  it  also  prevails  among  other  tribes;  and  it  is  not  at  all 
unlikely  that  the  Cliff-Dwellers  had  a  similar  myth  and  a 
similar  custom,  for  there  are  rock-inscriptions  near  the  cliff 
dwellings,  which  represent  serpents  and  other  symbols,  closely 
resembling  those  of  the  Pueblos. 

Mr  J.  Walter  Fewkes,  who  is  the  best  authority  on  the  sub- 


SNAKE   DANCE    AT   WALPI. 

ject,  after  long  study,  concludes  that  the  Snake  Dance,  which 
he  saw  in  three  pueblos — Walpi,  Oraibi  and  Hano, — was  not 
only  a  rain  ceremony,  a  pantomime  of  prayer  for  rain;  but  was 
also  connected  with  corn  worship,  especially  as  the  symbols  of 
corn  are  present  on  every  side.  No  clew  could  be  obtained  in 
regard  to  the  deity  addressed.  There  are,  however,  figures  of 
rain  clouds,  which,  so  far  as  they  go,  prove  that  rain  worship 
was  one  of  the  prominent  features,  but  the  personages  in  the 
drama,  especially  the  girls  in  the  Flute  ceremony,  and  the 
Snake  Maiden  in  the  Tusayan  ritual,  represent  the  Corn  or 
Germ  Maids;  the  images  also  represent  the  same.  The  girls 
have  figures  of  corn  painted  on  their  body,  and  images  which 
are  highly  elaborated  into  dolls  are  called  "  calako,"  corn 
maids,  These  dolls  have  characteristic  symbols  on  their 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS.          337 

cheeks,  the  same  rain  cloud  ornament  on  the  head,  an  ear  of 
corn  on  the  forehead,  eyes  of  different  colors,  and  painted 
chin.  The  Snake  Maid,  in  the  dramatization,  holds  a  bowl  of 
stalks  of  corn  and  bean  vines.  The  Flute  girls  carry  corn 
pahos  on  which  corn  is  depicted.  The  entrance  of  the  Flute 
girls  into  the  town  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  Flute  ceremony, 
corresponds,  according  to  legends,  to  the  entrance  of  the  Corn 
maids. 

By  a  similar  course  of  reasoning,  Mr.  Fewkes  concludes 
that  the  Walpi  Snake  Dance  perhaps  represents  the  same  corn 
worship,  combined  with  ram  worship.  This  is  celebrated  by 
men,  who  carry  reptiles  in  their  mouths;  but  the  Walpi 
"  Lalakonti  "  is  a  sky  god.  He  is  a  renowned  hero,  appearing 
in  different  disguises,  and  is  called  White  Corn,  and  was  one  of 
seven  brothers  who  sought  and  found  a  maiden  in  a  cave.  She 
became  his  bride  It  was  noticed  that  her  prayers  for  rain  were 
efficacious.  She  conceived;  in  a  tempest  a  child  was  born,  and 
she  erected  the  rain  cloud  altar  in  her  native  home.  White 
Corn  and  his  wife  retired  to  a  distant  mesa,  where  she  gave 
birth  to  reptiles  and  disappeared. 

The  description  of  these  dances  hase  been  given  by  Mr.  J. 
Walter  Fewkes,  at  great  length.  There  is  a  story  connected 
with  them,  and  it  is  as  follows  : 

A  youth,  under  guidance  of  Spider-woman,  visited  the  underworld  and 
had  many  adventures  with  several  myst'c  beings.  He  entered  a  room  where 
people  were  clothed  in  snake  skin*,  and  was  initiated  into  mysterious  cere 
monies,  in  which  he  learned  prayers  which  bring  corn  and  rain.  He  received 
two  maidens,  associated  with  clouds,  who  knew  the  songs  and  prayers  effi 
cacious  to  bring  rams.  He  carried  them  to  the  upperworld  to  his  own  peo 
ple.  One,  the  Snake-woman,  he  married;  the  other  became  the  bride  of  the 
Flute-youth.  His  wife  gave  birth  to  reptiles;  he  left  them  and  their  mother, 
and  migrated  to  another  country.* 

The  main  points  in  all  the  stories  are,  when  compared,  as 
follows: 

A  culture  hero  sought  a  mystic  land  blessed  with  abundance,  and 
brought  from  that  favored  place,  the  Corn  and  Rain  Maids,  whose  worship 
or  prayer  was  powerful  in  bringing  food  and  rain.  Stripped  of  pathetic  em 
bellishment,  the  legend  has  a  practical  interpretation.  The  two  necessities, 
corn  and  rain,  failed  the  ancient  Hopi  at  some  early  epoch  in  their  history, 
so  that  they  were  in  danger  of  starvation,  when  one  of  their  number,  fur 
nished  with  prayer  offerings  as  sacrifices,  sought  other  people  who  knew 
prayers,  songs  and  rites  to  bring  the  desired  gifts.  In  order  to  learn  the?e 
charms,  he  was  initiated  into  their  priesthood  by  this  foreign  people,  and  to 
make  that  adoption  complete,  married  one  of  their  maids,  and,  to  save  his 
brethren,  he  biought  his  bride  and  offspring  to  live  with  his  own  people. 
His  children  were  like  those  of  her  familv  (the  Snake  clan),  and  unlike  his, 
and  hence  trouble  arose  between  them.  The  mother  returned  to  her  own 
Und.  and  the  father  also  sought  a  new  home.  Their  children  inherited  the 
the  prayers  and  songs  which  bring  corn  and  rain,  and  they  were  ancestors 
of  the  present  Snake  people. 

So  it  is.  1  believe,  that  every  year,  when  the  proper  time  comes,  the  men 
of  the  Snake  family,  who  have  "been  initiated  into  the  Snake  fraternity,  and 


* "  Tusayan  Snake   Ceremonies,"   by  Jesse   Walter   Fewkes.     Annual   Report   Bureau   ot 
Ethnology,  1894-95;  p.  303. 


338 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


the  descendants  to  whom  these  prayers,  songs  and  fetishes  were  transmitted, 
assemble,  and  in  order  that  their  work  may  resemble  the  ancestral,  and  be 
more  efficacious,  they  gather  the  reptiles  from  the  fields;  dance  with  them, 
as  of  old;  personating  their  mother,  the  Corn  and  Mist  Maids,  in  the  kiva 
dramatization,  and  at  the  close  of  the  dance,  say  their  prayers  in  hearing  of 
the  reptiles,  that  they  may  repeat  them  to  higher  deities. 

While  this  theory  of  the  Snake  Dance  is  pla'usible,  it  offers  no  explana 
tion  of  why  reptiles  are  carried  in  the  mouths  of  the  priests.  It  can  readily 
be  seen  that  it  pre-supposes  that  they  dance  in  the  plaza  with  the  priests, 
but  why  are  they  not  simply  carried  in  the  hands?  For  this,  1  confess,  I 
have  no  adequate  explanation;  but  the  fact  that  they  are  carried  in  the 
hands  as  well  as  in  the  mouth  at  Oraibi  is  suggestive,  especially  if  the 
Oraibi  is  the  most  primitive. 

Some  daring  priest,  for  a  sensation,  still  holding  the  reptile  in  this  way, 
put  its  neck  in  his  mouth,  possibly  to  prevent  its  coiling  and  hiding  its  size. 


THE    SNAKE    DANCE. 

That  method  was  startling,  and  was  adopted  by  all,  a  condition  which 
persists  at  Oraibi. 

The  public  exhibition  called  the  Antelope  Dance,  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  eighth  day,  is  evidently  connected  with  corn  celebrations,  for  at  that 
time  a  wad  of  cornstalks  and  melon  vines,  instead  of  the  reptiles,  is  earned 
in  the  mouths  of  the  prfests,  as  on  the  following  dav. 

The  episode  in  the  Snake  kiva  at  Walpi,  when  the  bear  and  puma  per- 
sonators  carried  cornstalks  in  their  mouths  and  moved  them  before  the  faces 
of  the  men,  women  and  children,  has  probably  the  same  significance. 
The  pinches  of  different  colored  sand  which  were  taken  from  the  sand 
picture  of  the  antelopes  before  it  was  dismantled,  were  carried  to  the  corn 
fields,  as  symbolic  of  the  different  colored  corn,  they  hoped  their  prayers 
would  bring,  conformably  to  the  legend  of  its  efficacy  in  that  direction 

The  Snake  Dance  is  an  elaborate  prayer  for  rain,  in  which  the  reptiles 
are  gathered  from  the  fields,  intrusted  with  the  prayers  of  the  people,  and 


AGRICULTURE  AMONG  THE  CLIFf-DWELLERS. 


339 


then  given  their  liberty,  to  bear  these  petitions  to  the  divinities  who  can 
bring  the  blessings  of  copious  rains  to  the  parched  and  arid  farms  of  the 
Hopis.  It  is,  also,  a  dramatization  of  an  ancient  half  mythic,  half  historic 
legend  dealing  with  the  origin  and  migration  of  the  two  fraternities  which 
celebrate  it,  and  by  transmission  through  unnumbered  generations  of 
priests  has  become  conventionalized  to  a  degree,  and  possibly  the  actors 
themselves  could  not  now  explain  the  significance  of  every  detail  of  the 
ritual. 

The  seriousness  and  gravity  with  which  the  ceremonials  are  conducted 
is  very  impressive.  The  ceremonies  are  religious  and  make  up  the  compli 
cated  worship  of  the  people  of  Tusayan.  Even  a  visitor,  bent  on  sightsee 
ing,  will  be  impressed  with  the  seriousness  of  the  Indian  dancers,  and  the 
evidence  of  deep  feeling — perhaps  it  should  be  called  devotion— in  the 
onlookers.  Not  only  in  the  sombre  Snake  Dance,  but  in  every  other  cere 
mony  of  Tusayan,  the  -actors  are  inspired  by  one  purpose,  and  that  is  to 


THE    SNAKE    DANCE. 

persuade  the  gods  to  give  rain  and  abundant  crops.  So  the  birds  that  fly, 
the  reptiles  that  crawl,  are  made  messengers  to  the  great  nature  gods  with 
petitions;  and  the  different  ancestors  and  people  in  the  underworld  are 
notified  that  the  ceremony  is  going  on,  that  they,  too,  may  give  their  aid. 
The  amount  of  detail  connected  with  the  observance  of  one  of  the  cere 
monies  is  almost  beyond  belief,  and,  being  carried  on  in  the  dark  kiva,  has 
rarely  been  witnessed  by  others  than  the  initiated  priests/ 

The  following  is  the  description  of  the  Snake  Dance  : 

The  grand  entrance  of  the  Snake  priests  is  dramatic  to  the  last  degree. 
With  majestic  strides  they  hasten  into  the  plaza,  every  attitude  full  of 
energy  and  fierce  determined  purpose.  The  costume  of  the  priests  of  the 
sister  society  of  Antelopes  is  gay  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  Snake 
priests.  Their  bodies  rubbed  with  red  paint,  their  chins  blackened  and 


340 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


outlined  with  a  white  stripe,  their  dark  red  kilts  and  moccasins,  their  bar 
baric  ornaments,  give  the  Snake  priests  a  most  sombre  and  diabolical 
appearance.  Around  the  plaza,  by  a  wider  circuit  than  the  Ante 
lopes,  they  go,  striking  the  sipapu  plank  with  the  foot,  and  finally 
leaping  upon  it  with  wild  gestures.  Four  times  the  circuit  is  made;  then 
a  line  is  formed  facing  the  line  of  the  Antelopes,  who  cease  shaking  their 
rattles,  which  simulate  the  warning  note  of  the  rattle  snake.  A  moment's 
pause  and  the  rattles  begin  again,  and  a  deep,  humming  chant  accompanies 
them.  The  priests  sway  from  side  to  side,  sweeping  their  eagle-feather 
snake  whips  toward  the  ground;  the  song  grows  louder  and  the  lines  sway 
backward  and  forward  toward  each  other,  like  two  long  undulating  serpents. 
The  bearer  of  the  medicine  walks  back  and  forth  between  the  lines  and 
sprinkles  the  charm  liquid  to  the  compass  points. 

All  at  once  the  Snake  line  breaks  up  into  groups  of  three,  composed 
of  the  "  carrier  "  and  two  attendants.  The  song  becomes  more  animated 
and  the  groups  dance,  or  rather  hop,  around  in  a  circle  in  front  of  the  kisi  ; 

one  attendant  (the  "  hugger  ")  placing 
his  arm  over  the  shoulder  of  the  '*  car 
rier."  and  the  other  (the  "gatherer") 
walking  behind.  In  all  this  stir  and 
excitement  it  has  been  rather  difficult 
to  see  why  the  "carrier"  dropped  on 
his  knees  in  front  of  the  kisi;  a  mo 
ment  later,  he  is  seen  to  rise  with  a 
squirming  snake,  which  he  places 
midway  in  his  mouth,  and  the  trio 
dance  around  the  circle,  followed  by 
other  trios  bearing  hideous  snakes. 
The  "hugger"  waves  his  feather 
wand  befote  the  snake  to  attract  its 
attention,  but  the  reptile  inquiringly 
thrusts  its  head  against  the  "carrier's" 
breast  and  checks  and  twists  its  body 
into  knots  and  coils.  On  come  the  de 
moniacal  groups,  to  music,  now  deep 
and  resonant,  and  now  rising  to  a 
frenzied  pitch,  accompanied  by  the 
unceasing  sibilant  rattles  of  the  Ante 
lope  chorus.  Four  times  around,  and 
the  "  carrier"  opens  h's  mouth  and  drops  the  snake  to  the  ground,  and  the 
'  gatherer  "  dextiously  picks  it  up,  adding  in  the  same  manner,  from  time  to 
time,  other  snakes,  till  he  may  have  quite  a  bundle  composed  of  rattle 
snakes,  bull  snakes  and  arrow  snakes.  The  bull  snakes  are  large  and 
showy,  and  impressive  out  of  proportion  to  their  harmfulness.  When  all 
the  snakes  have  been  duly  danced  around  the  ring,  and  the  nerve  tension  is 
at  its  highest  pilch,  there  is  a  pause;  the  old  priest  advances  to  an  open 
place  and  sprinkles  sacred  meal  on  the  ground,  out  lining  a  ring  with  the 
six  compass  points,  while  the  snake  priests  gather  around.  At  a  given 
signal,  the  snakes  are  thrown  on  the  meal  drawing  and  a  wild  scramble  for 
them  ensues,  amid  a  rain  of  spittle  from  the  spectators  on  the  walls  above. 
Only  an  instant  and  the  priests  start  up,  each  with  one  or  more  snakes;  away 
they  dart  for  the  trail  to  carry  the  rain-bringing  messengers  to  their  native 
hiding  places.  They  dash  down  the  mesa  and  reappear  far  out  on  the 
trails  below,  running  like  the  wind  with  their  grewsome  burdens.  The 
Antelope  priests  next  march  gravely  around  the  plaza  four  times,  thumping 
the  sunken  plank,  and  file  out  to  their  kiva.  The  ceremony  is  done.* 


CARRIER,  HUGGER  AND  GATHERER. 


*  "  The   Mnki  Snake  Dance,"  by  Walter  Hough,  Ph.  D.     Published  by  the  Passenger  De 
partment  of  the  Santa  Fe  Route. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


PREHISTORIC  IRRIGATION. 

We  spoke  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  agriculture  which  was 
practiced  by  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  and  its  effect  upon  their  social 
condition  and  village  life.  We  shall  treat  of  the  same  subject 
in  this  chapter,  but  shall  illustrate  it  by  the  irrigating  con 
trivances  which  were  especially  useful  to  the  Pueblos  and  to 
the  tribes  south  and  west  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers. 

I.  Our  first  effort  will  be  to  show  the  connection  between 
the  irrigation  practised  by  the  Pueblos  and  their  social  condi 
tion.  There  was,  perhaps,  no  influence  so  strong  as  this.  It 
affected  not  only  their  social  status,  but  their  form  of  govern 
ment,  their  style  of  architecture,  their  art,  and  everything 
which  was  important.  It  secured  to  them  subsistence  in  the 
midst  of  an  arid  region.  It  brought  about  a  permanence  of 
settlement.  It  concentrated  the  people  into  large  communities. 
The  most  notable  advantage  was  that  irrigation  from  the  very 
beginning  gave  the  people  a  strength  which  enabled  them  to 
overcome  all  the  difficulties  in  their  way,  and  to  hold  their 
position  among  the  peoples  of  that  region. 

I.  It  seems  strange  that  in  this  remote  region  and  amid  the 
unfavorable  surroundings,  that  the  Pueblos  should  have  devel 
oped  so  thoroughly  and  kept  themselves  up  to  the  high  grade 
which  they  had  reached.  In  the  midst  of  an  arid  region,  with  a 
climate  which  seemed  to  be  always  unfavorable  to  agriculture; 
surrounded  by  mountains  which  kept  the  clouds  from  gather 
ing,  with  rocks  and  mesas  whose  height  was  forbidding,  with 
streams  which  had  through  countless  ages  worn  deep  channels 
in  the  rocks  and  now  flowed  at  immense  distances  below  the 
surface,  with  everything  unfavorable,  they  presented  at  the  time 
of  the  discovery  a  form  of  society  and  a  mode  of  life  which 
were  totally  unlike  any  other  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  How 
do  we  account  for  this? 

It  is  a  common  opinion  that  man  is  everywhere  influenced  by 
his  surroundings,  and  whatever  grade  of  civilization  he  has 
reached  has  been  owing  to  this  circumstance.  Here,  however, 
there  seems  to  be  an  exception,  for,  if  any  people  were  ever 
placed  in  unfavorable  surroundings,  it  was  the  Pueblos.  There 
were  tribes  in  their  midst,  who  remained  in  the  wild  state,  and 
who  continued  the  hunter-life,  roaming  over  the  hill  tops  and 
through  the  valleys  as  nomads;  building  their  rude  huts,  which 
they  easily  took  down  and  removed  to  new  places1;  but  this 
people  from  an  early  date  led  a  peaceful  sedentary  life,  built 
their  many-storied  houses,  were  organized  into  villages,  made 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION.  343 

their  houses  their  castles,  and  made  permanent  homes,  and  in 
all  respects  presented  a  contrast  to  their  enemies,  who  were 
constantly  besieging  them.  Even  when  driven  to  the  cliffs, 
and  compelled  to  make  their  homes  high  up  in  the  rocks,  they 
maintained  their  superiority  and  kept  up  their  grade  of  culture, 
refusing  to  yield  to  their  enemies. 

There  were  other  tribes  far  to  the  east,  who  had  occupied 
the  Mississippi  valley  from  time  immemorial,  and  amid  the 
abundance  which  was  secured  from  the  soil,  and  the  ease  with 
which  subsistence  was  gained  from  the  forest,  had  never 
reached  any  such  a  grade  of  progress,  certainly  never  exhibited 
any  such  social  condition.  There  were  tribes  to  the  west,  who 
in  the  midst  of  the  wonderful  productiveness  of  the  California 
fields  and  forests,  were  in  the  most  abject  state  and  were  the 
lowest  of  the  low.  The  only  people  who  ever  reached  a 
higher  grade  than  the  Pueblos,  were  those  who  were  situated  in 
the  southwest,  and  amid  their  peculiar  surroundings  had  grown 
into  partially  civilized  and  well-organized  nations.  We  look 
upon  this  people,  whom  we  call  the  Pueblos,  with  a  constant 
surprise,  and  wonder  how  it  was  that  they  should  have  become 
so  conspicuous  among  their  fellows. 

Was  this  owing  to  their  inheritance,  and  because  they 
belonged  to  a  superior  stock  of  people,  or  was  it  because 
under  unfavorable  circumstances,  they  were  forced  into  a  mode 
of  life  and  compelled  to  choose  an  occupation  which  uncon 
sciously  resulted  in  their  improvement  and  social  progress?  It 
is  plain  that  the  Pueblo  culture  was  a  child  of  adversity,  and 
this,  of  itself,  was  the  cause  of  their  superiority,  rather  than 
any  constitutional  tendency  or  their  inherited  quality.  As  we 
study  their  sluggish  nature  and  their  ease-loving  character,  we 
are  convinced  that  they  were  no  more  heroic  than  others.  The 
only  key  to  the  solution  of  the  problem,  which  we  can  dis 
cover,  is  the  one  which  is  found  in  their  employment:  It  was 
agriculture  by  means  of  irrigation.  This  was  a  necessity,  but 
it  was  one  which  brought  its  own  reward;  a  misfortune  which 
brought  a  fortune  in  return.  Those  who  are  studying  sociologi 
cal  problems,  may  possibly  learn  a  lesson  from  this.  The  em 
ployments  of  the  people  have  as  much  to  do  with  the  peculiar 
condition  of  society  as  any  one  cause,  and  the  social  distinctions 
are  always,  even  in  modern  times,  the  result  of  employment. 

2.  Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  situation.  We  have 
already  spoken  of  the  great  plateau  on  which  the  pueblos  are 
situated,  as  being  very  peculiar  in  its  character,  and  as  having 
a  great  effect  upon  the  architecture  which  appears  here.  The 
buildings  were  often  imitative  of  the  rocks,  and  the  terraced 
roofs  resembled  those  found  in  the  sides  of  the  mesas.  We 
have  spoken,  also,  of  the  aridity  of  the  soil  and  the  absolute 
necessity  for  irrigation  on  account  of  it.  We  have  also  referred 
to  the  religious  customs  of  the  people,  and  especially  those 
customs  which  grew  out  of  their  desire  for  rain;  their  cere 
monies  all  concentrated  upon  this  thought,  and  their  sacred 


344 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


dramas  were  often  personifications  of  the  rain  cloud.  There  is, 
however,  one  point  which  we  desire  to  accentuate,  and  that  is 
the  resemblance  between  the  Pueblos  and  those  nations  at  the 
east,  which  so  early  arose  to  prominence  because  of  their 
sedentary  life  and  agricultural  condition,  and  especially  because 
they  were  able  to  overcome  the  difficulties  with  which  they 
were  surrounded. 

3.  We  see  the  influence  of  agriculture,  in  the  state  of  society 
which  prevailed,  for  it  raised  the  entire  people  to  a  higher 
plane.  Notwithstanding  the  difference  of  their  situation,  the 
diversity  of  their  language,  the  separation  of  the  tribes,  and 
the  distances  between  their  villages,  their  unity  was  complete, 
because  of  the  fact  that  they  were  agriculturists,  rather  than 
hunters,  and  because  in  their  agriculture  they  depended  upon 
irrigation.  They  had  to  combine  to  build  their  irrigating 
ditches,  and  to  keep  them  in  repair;  and  were  led  by  this  to 
continue  the  same  sedentary  life  which  they  had  begun,  and  to 


PUEBLO    AT    HALONA.* 

remain  in  the  same  region  where  they  had  first  built  their  com 
munistic  houses,  and  perpetuate  the  same  government  which 
they  had  inherited  from  their  fathers,  as  well  as  to  keep  up  the 
religious  practices  which  their  ancestors  observed  before  them. 
We  can  not  say  that  it  was  an  ethnic  type  which  was  perpetuated, 
nor  an  ethnic  descent  which  produced  either  their  style  of  archi 
tecture  or  their  mode  of  life,  though  their  social  organization, 
especially  their  clan-life,  may  be  owing  to  these  causes. 

The  radical  difference  between  them  and  the  tribes  which 
surrounded  them,  was  not  in  language  or  descent,  but  in  em 
ployment.  This  is  the  thought  which  we  desire  to  illustrate. 
The  village  life  and  the  agricultural  pursuits  of  the  Pueblos  are 
the  chief  causes  which  resulted  in  their  high  grade  of  civiliza- 

*The  arrangement  of  dwellings  about  a  court,  characteristic  of  the  ancient  Pueblos,  is 
illustrated  by  the  cut  The  kiva  is  in  the  centre  of  the  court,  which  is  well  drained; 


PREHISTORIC   IRRIGATION.  345 

tion.  This  is  a  thought  which  has  impressed  other  minds,  and 
has  often  been  dwelt  upon  by  other  authors.  Mr.  Morgan, 
who  is  a  great  authority  upon  the  social  life  of  the  American 
aborigines  and  has  written  one  of  the  best  books  on  ancient 
society,  was  impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  Pueblos  reached  so 
high  a  grade  of  civilization,  and  that  they  stood  next  to  the 
civilized  people  who  dwelt  in  the  southwest  provinces,  and 
who  were  the  builders  of  the  ancient  cities,  many  of  which  are 
now  in  ruins.  He  ascribes  it  largely  to  their  village  life  and 
their  social  organizations,  but  recognizes  agriculture,  also,  as 
one  of  the  factors.  He  says: 

The  Yucatan  and  Central  American  Indians  were,  in  their  architecture, 
in  advance  of  the  remaining  aborigines  of  North  America.  Next  to  them, 
probably,  were  the  Aztecs,  and  some  few  tribes  southward.  Holding  the 


STORAGE  HOUSE  IN  CANYON  DEL  MUERTO.* 

third  position,  though  not  far  behind,  were  the  Village  Indians  of  New 
Mexico.  They  all  alike  depended  upon  horticulture  for  subsistence,  and 
cultivated  by  irrigation;  cotton  bens:  superadded  to  the  maize,  beans, 
squashes,  and  tobacco,  cultivated  by  the  northern  tribes.  Their  houses, 
with  those  previously  described,  represent  together  an  original  indigenous 
architecture,  which,  with  its  diversities,  sprang  out  of  their  necessities.  Its 
fundamen'al  communal  type,  is  found  not  less  clearly  in  the  houses  about 
to  be  described,  and  in  the  so-called  palace  of  Palenque,  than  in  the  long 
house  of  the  Iroquois  An  examination  of  the  plan  of  the  structures  in 
New  Mexico  and  Central  America  will  tend  to  establish  the  truth  of  this 
proposition. 

At  the  time  of  Coronado's  expedition  to  capture  the  Seven  Cities  of 
Cihola,  so  called  in  the  "  Relations  "  of  the  period,  the  aborigines  of  New 
Mexico  manufactured  earthen  vessels  of  large  size  and  excellent  workman- 


*  Storage  houses,  like  the  one  represented  in  the  cut,  are  common  on  the  Rio  de  Chelly. 
The  doors  are  large  and  wide  to  admit  the  carrying  of  corn  stalks  into  them,  as  well  as 
storing  the  corn.  Such  store  houses  were  sometimes  covered  with  plaster,  imitating  the  color 
of  the  cliffs,  for  the  purpose  of  concealment. 


346 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


ship;  wove  cotton  fabrics  with  spun  thread;  cultivated  irrigated  gardens; 
were  armed  with  bows,  arrows,  and  shields;  wore  deer-skins  and  buffalo- 
robes,  and  also  cotton  mantles,  as  external  garments,  and  had  domesticated 
the  wild  turkey. 

What  was  true  of  the  Cibolans  in  this  respect,  was  doubtless  true  of  the 
sedentary  Indians  in  general.  Each  pueblo  was  an  independent  organiza 
tion  under  a  council  of  chiefs,  except  as  several  contiguous  pueblos,  speak 
ing  dialects  of  the  same  language,  were  confederated  for  mutual  protection, 
of  which  the  seven  Cibolan  pueblos,  situated,  probably,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Rio  Chaco,  within  an  extent  of  twelve  miles,  afford  a  fair  example.  The 
degree  of  their  advancement  is  more  conspicuously  shown  in  their  house 
architecture.  The  supposition  is  reasonable  that  the  Village  Indians  north 
of  Mexico  had  attained  their  highest  culture  an  i  development  where  these 
structures  are  iound.  They  are  similar  in  style  and  plan  to  the  present 
occupied  pueblos  in  New  Mexico,  but  superior  in  construction,  as  stone  is 
superior  to  adobe,  or  to  cobble  stone  and  mortar.  They  are  also  equal,  if 
not  superior,  in  size  and  in  extent  of  their  accomodation,  to  any  Indian 
pueblos  ever  constructed  in  North  America.  This  fact  gives  additional 
interest  to  the  ruins  which  are  here  to  be  considered.  The  finest  structures 
of  the  Village  Indians  of  New  Mexico,  and  northward  of  its  present 
boundary  line,  are  found  on  the  San  Juan  and  its  tributaries,  unoccupied 


RUINED    PUEBLO    ON    THE    MAC    ELMO. 

and  in  ruins.  Even  the  regions  in  which  they  are  principally  situated  are 
not  now  occupied  by  this  class  of  Indians,  but  are  roamed  over  by  wild 
tribes  of  the  Apaches  and  the  Utes. 

The  most  conspicuous  cluster  of  the  ruined  and  deserted  pueblos  are 
in  the  canyon  or  valley  of  the  Rio  Chaco.  At  the  period  of  the  highest 
prosperity  the  valley  of  Chaco  must  have  possessed  remarkable  advantages 
for  subsistence.  The  plain  between  the  walls  of  the  canyon  was  between 
half  a  mile  and  a  mile  in  width,  but  the  amount  of  water  now  passing 
through  is  small.  In  July,  according  to  Lieutenant  Simpson,  the  running 
stream  was  eight  feet  wide,  and  a  foot  and  a  half  deep,  at  one  of  the 
pueblos;  while  Mr.  Jackson  found  no  running  water  and  the  valley  entirely 
dry  in  the  month  of  May,  with  the  exception  of  pools  of  water  in  place's 
and  a  reservoir  of  pure  water  in  the  rocks  at  the  top  of  the  bluff.  The  con 
dition  of  the  region  is  shown  by  these  two  statements.  During  the  rainy 
season  in  the  summer,  which  is  also  the  season  of  the  growing  crops,  there 
is  an  abundance  of  water;  while  in  the  dry  season  it  is  confined  to  springs 
pools,  and  reservoirs.  From  the  number  of  pueblos  in  the  valley,  indicating 
a  population  of  several  thousand,  the  gardens  within  it  must  have  yielded 
a  large  amount  of  subsistence;  the  climate  being  favorable  to  its  growth 
and  ripening.* 

4.     The  social  organization  of  the  Pueblos  was  closely  con- 

*"  Houses  and  House-life/'  page  171. 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION. 


347 


nected  with  their  employment,  and  was  almost  a  necessity 
under  the  circumstances.  Property  rights  and  titles  and  own 
ership  in  fee  simple  of  land  did  not  prevail  in  prehistoric  times, 
but  was  a  possessory  right,  which  came  from  irrigation,  and 
which  was  almost  equal  in  its  advantages.  The  limitations 
upon  its  alienation  to  an  Indian  from  another  tribe,  or  to  a 
white  man,  did  not  lie  in  the  absence  of  written  titles  or  con 
veyances  of  land,  but  in  the  necessities  of  the  case.  There 
was  no  power  to  alienate  an  irrigating  ditch,  and  there  would 
be  no  value  to  the  land  where  the  ditch  could  not  be  kept  up. 
"  The  ideas  of  the  people  respecting  the  ownership  or  the 
absolute  title  to  land,  with  pow^r  to  alienate  to  anyone  else, 
were  entirely  above  their  conception  of  property  and  its  uses." 
The  occupation  of  a  certain  district  was  a  right  in  itself,  and 
was  title  enough.  The  inheritance  was  not  that  of  children 
from  father  and  mother,  but  of  a  tribe  from  its  ancestry,  and 


CASAS    GRANDES    IN    SONOKA.* 

from  those  who  built  the  village  to  those  who  continued  to  live 
in  it.  The  same  is  true  with  respect  to  irrigating  ditches,  and 
even  in  respect  to  the  sections  of  the  village  garden.  There 
was  a  social  organization  which  secured  this  result. 

The  government  was  composed  of  the  following  persons,  all  of  whom, 
except  the  first,  were  elected  annually:  First,  a  cacique  or  principal 
sachem;  second,  a  governor  or  alcalde;  third,  a  lieutenant  governor;  fourtth, 
a  war  captain,  and  a  lieutenant  war  captain;  fifth,  six  fiscals  or  policemen. 
"The  cacique,"  Mr.  Miller  says,  "has  the  general  control  of  all  the  officers 
in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  transacts  the  husiness  of  the  pueblo 
with  the  surrounding  whites,  Indian  agents,  etc.,  and  imposes  reprimands  or 
severer  punishments  upon  delinquents.  He  is  the  keeper  of  the  archives 
of  the  pueblo;  for  example,  he  has  in  his  keeping  the  United  States  patent 
for  the  tract  of  four  square  leagues  on  which  the  pueblo  stands,  which  was 
based  upon  the  Spanish  grant  of  1689;  also  deeds  of  other  purchased  lands, 
adjoining  the  pueblo.  He  holds  his  office  for  life.  At  his  death,  the  peo 
ple  ele.-t  his  successor.  The  cacique  may,  before  his  death,  name  his  suc- 

*The  cut  shows  the  difference  between  the  architecture  of  the  anci«nt  Pueblo  tribes  in 
Sonora  and  those  in  New  Mexico  and  Colo?  ado,  especially  in  the  absence  of  the  court. 
Both  belong  to  agricultural  tribes. 


348 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


cessor,  but  the  nomination  must  be  ratified  by  the  people,  represented  by 
their  principal  men  assembled  in  estufa."  In  this  cacique  may  be  recog 
nized  the  sachem  of  the  northern  tribes,  whose  duties  were  purely  of  a 
civil  character.* 

In  this  simple  government  we  have  a  fair  sample,  in  sub 
stance  and  in  spirit,  of  the  ancient  government  of  New 
Mexico.  Each  pueblo  was  an  independent  organization,  under 
a  council  of  chiets,  except  as  several  pueblos  were  confederated 
for  mutual  protection.  Through  all  this  region  there  was  one 
mode  of  house  architecture,  as  there  was  substantially  one 
mode  of  life.  The  country  was  of  that  character  which  would 
force  them  to  herd  together  in  villages.  The  very  wildness  of 
the  region  and  its  aridity  required  that  there  should  be  centres 
of  population,  which  would  constitute  the  homes  of  the  clans, 
as  well  as  the  defenses  of  the  people.  Their  subsistence  being 
secured  by  means  of  irrigatiug  the  soil,  they  were  naturally 
Jed  to  combine  together,  not  only  to  build,  but  to  keep  in 


nGS*wrv»        ,~4<  *•••*"•  -•*     23*»*W!r*3    .  ~-  ry   ^i.r 

1  i .  B  vS«s 


GYMNASIUM    AT    CHICKEN    ITZA,  GUATEMALA-! 

repair  and  defend  a  canal,  as  well  as  to  defend  their  rights  to 
it.  It  is  probable  that  the  people  were  from  an  early  date  sur- 
sounded  by  wild  tribes,  and  were  subject  to  invasions  and  were 
compelled  to  make  their  permanent  homes  upon  the  mesas,  or, 
if  they  made  them  in  the  valleys,  to  build  them  in  such  a  way 
as  to  repell  a  sudden  attack  from  a  prowling  foe.  The  fact, 
however,  that  modern  pueblos  are  at  a  distance  from  the 
streams  and  out  of  reach  of  the  floods,  shows  that  the  people 
regarded  their  safety  as  important  even  as  their  subsistence, 
the  permanent  homes  being  somewhat  remote  from  the  val 
leys,  but  their  farming  shelters  being  in  the  midst  of  the  fields. 
We  see,  then,  that  agriculture,  and  especially  agriculture  by 
irrigation,  .was  a  cause,  as  well  as  a  product  of  the  social 

*"  Houses  and  House-life,"  page  147. 

fThis  cut  represents  the   architecture    of  the   partially-civilized    people    of  Yucatan    and 
Guatemala. 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION.  349 

advancement  of  the  Pueblos.  This  is  always  the  case  with  primi 
tive  society.  It  is  a  new  era  to  any  people  when  the  field 
begins  to  yield  its  products,  instead  of  the  forest.  The  stream 
may  furnish  subsistence  to  wandering  tribes,  but  when  it  is 
diverted  from  its  course  and  carried  in  artificial  channels,  and 
made  to  irrigate  the  soil,  it  becomes  another  creature.  It 
becomes  a  handmaid  of  civilization.  It  then  leads  the  people 
unconsciously  to  fix  their  habitation  by  its  side,  and  to  remain 
permanently  in  their  villages.  The  association  of  the  Pueblo 
architecture  with  the  art  of  irrigation,  is  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world.  Both  came  from  the  same  causes,  and 
involved  the  same  mode  of  life.  They  came  from  the  force  of 
circumstances,  but  were  alike  useful  to  the  people. 

II.  Let  us  turn  to  the  various  contrivances  which  were 
resorted  to  by  the  Pueblos  for  storing  water  and  for  irrigating 
the  soil.  These  have  attracted  the  attention  of  all  the  early 
explorers,  and  have  also  been  objects  of  study  by  the  later 
expeditions,  and  are  now  pretty  well  known.  They  show  the 
skill  of  the  people,  and  they  illustrate  their  grade  of  culture 
and  throw  much  light  upon  their  social  organization.  They  are 
especially  interesting,  because  of  the  fact  that  white  men  have 
settled  in  the  same  region  and  were  obliged  to  resort  to  some 
of  the  same  means  of  irrigation  in  order  to  develop  its 
resources,  and  provide  against  its  difficulties.  It  is  an  old 
motto  that  "  Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,"  but  the 
children  are  sometimes  slow  to  learn  the  lesson.  The  Pueblos, 
however,  were  the  children  of  Nature,  and  learned  from 
experience  to  adapt  themselves  to  Nature  in  all  her  varying 
moods.  We  do  not  know  how  early  they  began  to  practice 
irrigation,  nor  do  we  know  the  time  when  they  began  to  build 
their  communistic  houses;  but  a  fair  supposition  is  that  it  was 
after  they  settled  in  the  region,  when  they  had  learned  of  the 
scarcity  of  the  water  supply  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  rain. 
They  were  then  led  by  the  force  of  circumstances  to  resort  to 
this  means  of  securing  subsistence.  This  probably  occurred 
before  the  wild  tribes  entered  the  region,  and,  perhaps,  before 
the  caves  were  occupied.  Some  have  supposed  that  the  caves 
were  their  first  abodes,  and  that  the  people  gradually  grew  into 
the  habit  of  building  houses;  first  out  of  wood  and  bark,  next 
out  of  adobe,  and  lastly  out  of  stone,  and  that  they  in  the 
meantime  changed  from  nomads  into  agriculturists;  but  find 
ing  that  ordinary  agriculture  was  difficult  to  follow,  on  account 
of  the  lack  of  rain,  were  led  by  the  force  of  circumstances  to 
resort  to  irrigation. 

We  conclude  that  all  these  contrivances  for  storing  water 
for  irrigating  the  valleys,  and  for  making  the  soil  everywhere 
as  productive  as  was  possible  in  such  an  arid  region,  were 
original  inventions  which  show  the  genius  of  the  people.  It  is 
certainly,  very  interesting  to  go  over  the  different  parts  of  this 
great  plateau,  and  see  how  the  people  provided  against  the 


350 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


drought,  and  how  carefully  they  studied  the  changes  of  nature, 
and  developed  her  resources.  Not  one,  but  many  ways  were 
resorted  to  in  making  the  soil  productive.  These  will  be  seen 
as  we  proceed,  but  may  be  mentioned  briefly:  I,  The  simplest 
plan  was  to  depend  upon  the  rain  for  the  crops,  and  to  make 
the  springs  supply  the  people  for  domestic  purposes.  There 
were  no  cattle  or  sheep,  or  herds  of  any  kind,  which  required 
water,  but  the  people  needed  a  constant  supply.  The  result 
was  that  the  houses  were  placed  near  some  spring  where  water 
was  constant.  The  pueblos  were  also  placed  near  springs  and 
lakes.  The  Zuni  pueblo  was  near  a  spring,  which  became 
sacred,  and  around  which  were  sacred  vessels  which  were  cov 
ered  with  figures  of  the  water-animals  and  were  sacred  to  the 


SACRED   SPRING   AT   ZUNI. 


water  divinities.  This  has  been  described  by  Lieut.  Simpson 
and  many  other  travelers.  The  springs  which  flowed  out  of 
the  caves  and  from  beneath  the  ledges,  where  the  Cliff 
Dwellings  were  placed,  have  been  described  by  Mr.  Holmes, 
Mr.  Jackson,  Mr.  Lewis  W.  Gunckel,  and  by  other  explorers  in 
that  region. 

2.  It  was  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that  springs  were  so 
numerous  among  the  mountain  regions  which  bordered  on  the 
Pueblo  territories  on  all  sides,  that  they  were  chosen  as  the 
abodes  of  various  tribes;  some  of  whom  made  their  homes  in 
caves,  and  others  built  their  stone  houses  into  the  sides  of  the 
cliffs,  and  so  may  be  called  Cliff-Dwellers.  The  most  of  these 
were  agriculturists,  though  they  depended  upon  the  rain  and 
ordinary  cultivation  rather  than  irrigation. 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION.  351 

The  best  known  Cliff-Dwellers  are  those  situated  to  the 
north  of  the  Pueblo  territory  in  the  San  Juan  valley,  but  others 
have  been  discovered  among  the  mountains  far  to  the  south 
west.  These  have  been  described  by  Mr,  Carl  Lumholtz,  and 
already  described,  but  we  refer  to  them  again,  for  they  show 
the  character  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  generally. 

Springs  have  been  discovered  in  the  Pueblo  region,  which 
were  destroyed  or  killed  by  the  people  when  they  left  the  vil 
lage  in  which  they  dwelt.  They  did  this  by  filling  them  up. 
The  springs  were  sometimes  at  a  distance  from  the  villages. 
Drinking  water  was  carried  by  women  in  jars  or  urns  placed  on 
their  heads,  or  carried  in  a  net  thrown  over  their  shoulders. 
The  village  of  Acoma  was  supplied  in  this  way.  It  was  perched 
on  a  high  mesa,  and  all  the  water  was  carried  up  by  the  women. 

Mr.  Bandelier  says: 

The  presence  of  ancient  villages  on  the  high  mesas  west  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  near  Santa  Fe,  in  places  of  difficult  access,  without  communication 
with  the  river  banks,  need  not  surprise  us.  Here,  the  rainv  season  is  toler 
ably  regular.  Indian  corn  would  grow  without  artificial  watering.  Springs 
would  supply  the  wants  of  the  people.* 

Dr  T.  M.  Prudden  says: 

To  one  who  has  travelled  much  in  the  southwest  plateau  country,  and 
knows  not  only  just  how  dry  it  is,  but,  also,  just  how  dry  it  is  not,  the 
residence  of  these  early  peoples  in  small,  scattered  communities  along  the 
now  remote  canyons  and  valleys,  is  neither  surprising  nor  mysterious, 
There  was  warmth  and  shelter  the  year  round,  and  for  those  who  had 
learned  to  build,  there  were  houses  half  made  already  by  the  cave  walls 
and  cliffs.  It  does  not  require  very  much  food  for  bare  existence,  and  a 
very  small  patch  of  corn  suffices  for  a  family.  While  springs  and  pools 
are  rare,  there  are  a  good  many  places,  in  valleys  apparently  dry  the  sum 
mer  through;  in  which  the  seepage  from  the  back  country  comes  down 
some  way  in  the  hills,  and  furnishes  moisture  enough  for  a  crop  of  corn. 
The  beds  of  dry  streams,  also,  where  sand  is  plenty,  are  often  moist  beneath 
the  surface-! 

3.  Tanks  have  been  discovered  by  explorers  among  the  cliff 
dwellings.  One  of  them  was  situated  near  the  High  House, 
seven  hundred  feet  above  the  stream,  just  outside  of  the  house. 
It  was  reached  by  passing  out  of  the  window  or  door  in  the 
side  of  the  house,  passing  down  by  the  aid  of  pegs  to  the 
water.  Another  was  found  in  the  Canon  De  Chelly,  at  the  end 
of  the  ledge  on  which  was  a  village  or  cliff  dwelling.  This 
tank  was  filled  with  water,  which  was  taken  out  of  the  stream 
be'ow  and  drawn  up  by  a  rope,  and  poured  into  the  tank.  It 
was  reached  by  passing  along  the  narrow  ledge,  which  led  from 
it  to  the  village  or  cluster  of  houses,  and  could  not  be  destroyed 
by  any  prowling  foe. 

Mr.  Bandelier  speaks  of  tanks  near  Casa  Grande;  one  with 
a  depth  of  eight  and  one-half  feet,  which  is  surrounded  by  an 
embankment  about  eight  or  ten  feet  in  length.  He  says: 


*  Bandolier's  Final  Report,  Part  II.,  page  16. 
t  See  Harper's  Magazine,  June,  1897. 


352 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


Between  Casa  Grande  and  Florence  the  distance  is  nine  miles.  Several 
ancient  irrigating  ditches  are  seen  on  the  road,  some  of  which  are  quite 
deep.  In  one  place  I  found  an  elliptical  tank,  almost  as  large  as  the  one  at 
Casa  Grande  and  presenting  a  singular  appearance.  Lined  water  conduits 
are  found  at  Tule,  Arizona,  and  others  at  Casas  Grandes  in  Sonora,  The  vil 
lage  of  Tabira  had  four  large  artifical  pools  from  which  the  people  derived 
drinking  water.  The  Pueblo  Acoma  subsists  to-day  upon  the  water  col 
lected  into  picturesque  basins  on  the  top  of  the  rock,  three  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  above  the  utterly  dry  valley.  To  such  and  similar  devices  the 
New  Mexican  villager  had  to  resort,  and  it  was  a  relief  to  him  when  he 
could  nestle  by  the  side  of  a  permanent  river,  and  raise  beans  and  cala 
bashes  with  the  aid  of  primitive  channels  of  irrigation.  The  tribes  on  the 
Rio  Grande  and  people  of  Taos  and  Pecos  enjoyed  such  privileges  more 
than  any  of  the  other  tribes.  With  them  irrigation  was  easy,  and  frequent 
mention  is  made  of  it  by  the  older  writers. 

4.  There  were  reservoirs  on  the  mesas,  which  were  constructed 
by  placing  dams  across  the  channels  or  water-spouts;  leaving 
the  low  places  to  be   filled   with   rain  during   the  summer,  or 
melted  snow  in  the  spring.     There  was  a  contrivance  for  sup 
plying  the  wants  of  the  village,  which  was  very  ingenious.     It 
consisted  of  making  a  series  of  reservoirs,  some  of  them  above 
the  village,  some  of  them  below,  and  causing  the  water  to  flow 
through  the  court,  where  it  was  used  for  domestic  purposes,  and 

afterward  gathered 

*nto  a  P011^  and 
then  distributed  to 
the  fields.  One 
such  existed  at 
Pecos.  Another 
was  found  at 
Q  u  i  v  i  r  a.  Both 
have  been  de 
scribed  by  Mr. 
B  a  n  d  e  1  i  e  r.  The 

1"".Cr  j.S  ^fKSCIlt- 

ed  in  the  cut. 

5.  There  were  lakes  in  places,  which  furnished  an  abundant 
supply.    There  was  a  sacred  lake  near  Walpi,  which  was  visited 
by  Mrs    Stevenson,  Prof.  Tylor,  and  others.     It  was  regarded 
as  the  home  of  the  children,  who  were  lost,  but  whose  spirits 
were   allowed  to  visit  the  Pueblos  at  their  sacred  feasts  and 
carry  the  sacred  waters  to  the  little  children,  who  were  gathered 
in  the  estufas,  and  were  permitted   to  drink   from  the  bowls 
handed  to  them  by  the  priests  at  the  time  of  their  initiation. 

The  lake  called  "  Montezuma  Wells"  has  been  described. 
This  was  near  a  large  area  of  agricultural  land,  but  was  sur 
rounded  by  cliffs,  in  the  sides  of  which  are  many  interesting 
cliff  dwellings.  The  well  or  pond  must  have  furnished  an 
abundant  supply  of  water  for  the  use  of  the  people. 

6.  There  were  streams  near  which  the  pueblos  were  built,  and 
which  supplied  the  wants  of  the  people,  but  were  not  used  for 
irrigating   purposes,  as  the   rain  was  depended  upon  mainly. 
The  Chaco  was  such  a  stream.     Here,  there  were  fourteen  vil- 


RESERVOIRS   AT    QUIVIKA. 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION.  353 

lages  scattered  along  the  banks;  all  of  them  large,  and  once 
rilled  with  a  flourishing  population.  It  was  a  rich  valley,  and 
was  probably  once  filled  with  garden  beds  and  fields  of  maize, 
which  furnished  an  abundant  subsistence.  The  valley  was 
deserted  probably  before  the  advent  of  the  white  man,  but  was, 
perhaps,  abandoned  on  account  of  the  invasion  of  the  savages. 

7.  The  so-called  garden  beds  or  hanging  gardens,  which  were 
built  in  terraces  on  the  sides  of  the  mesas,  are  very  interesting. 
They  remind  us  of  the  hanging  gardens  of  the  East,  and  of 
the  terraces  on  the  Alps,  where  grapes  are  raised,  and  the 
ancient  ridges  in  Great  Britain,  which  have  excited  so  much 
curiosity  among  the  archaeologists.* 

Garden  beds  of  a  peculiar  construction  are  found  on  the 
Sonora  River  in  Arizona.  They  are  described  as  follows  by 
Mr.  A.  F.  Bandelier: 

Rows  of  boulders,  such  as  could  be  picked  up  in  the  bed  of  the  torrent, 
were  laid  on  the  ground  parallel  to  one  another,  intersected  by  transverse 
rows  at  irregular  angles,  thus  forming  rectangular  areas  of  various  lengths. 
They  look  like  rude  dams  laid  across  the  course  of  the  Arroya.  They  were 
so  laid  in  order  to  keep  a  certain  expanse  of  ground  free  from  the  drift 
brought  in  by  the  streams,  and  to  keep  the  floods  from  carrying  away  the 
crops.  These  contrivances  belong  to  the  kind  of  agricultural  expedients 
by  means  of  which  the  waters  of  the  mountain  torrents  were  made  to 
serve  for  the  irrigation  of  crops  planted  in  their  path. 

Between  Santiago  and  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Madre  are  dams  and  dykes 
which  extend  across  the  Arroyas.  Between  the  dykes  are  more  or  less 
regular  shaped  plots  of  tillable  land,  called  by  the  inhabitants  "  Labores," 
or  tilled  patches.  Connected  with  these  artificial  garden  beds  are  ruins  of 
houses,  which  are  small  buildings  containing  from  two  to  four  rooms. 

Mr.  Carl  Lumholtz  .speaks  of  the  garden  beds  which  are 
connected  with  the  deserted  pueblos  and  ancient  cave  dwell 
ings  of  the  Sierra  Madre.  He  says: 

Deserted  pueblos,  consisting  of  square  stone  houses,  are  frequently 
met  with.  They  are  generally  found  on  the  top  of  the  hills  and  mountains, 
and  are  surrounded  by  fortifications  in  the  shape  of  stone  walls.  The 
most  interesting  remains,  however,  are  in  the  caves,  which  contain  houses 
at  times  three  stories  high,  with  small  windows  and  cross-like  doors,  in  the 
ordinary  conventional  Indian  way;  even  sfone  staircases  are  once  in  a 
while  met  with.  There  and  everywhere  through  the  Sierra  Madre,  we 
found  trincherus,  or  stone  terraces,  built  across  small  valleys,  evidently 
intended  for  agricultural  purposes. 

On  every  steep  mountain  side  these  extraordinary  terraces  of  solid, 
large  stones,  constructed  in  the  cyclopean  style  of  masonry,  arose  to  a 
height  of  fifteen,  nay,  twenty  feet.  We  observed  them  even  at  an  altitude 
of  7,400  feet.  At  one  point  we  counted  eight  of  them  within  a  space  of  150 
feet,  the  aborigines  having  gained,  by  the  enormous  amount  of  labor 
expended,  3,500  square  feet  of  additional  surface  ground;  in  other  words, 
they  only  made  room  for  500  or  600  "  hills  "  of  maize. 

Small,  enclosed  gardens  called  "  Farming  Pueblos "  are 
common,  both  at  Zuni  and  among  the  Tusayans.  The  enclosing 
walls  are  generally  made  of  stone,  sometimes  of  stone  in  com 
bination  with  stakes.  Upright  slabs  of  stone  have  been  used, 

*See  Bandclier's  Report,  Part  II.,  page  17. 


354  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

by  the  Pueblo-Builders  to  make  walls,  and  by  the  Cliff-Dwellers 
to  mark  the  graves. 

Field  shelters,  made  out  of  brush  and  branches,  with  raised 
platforms,  were  common  among  the  Pueblos.  These  were 
mere  make-shifts,  and  do  not  compare  with  the  boulder  sites, 
which  are  found  associated  with  the  irrigating  ditches.  These 
are  to  be  distinguished  from  the  corrals,  which  have  been  erected 
in  recent  times  near  the  pueblos;  specimens  of  which  may  be 
seen  at  Walpi,  Pescado,  and  Ojo  Caliente.* 

8.  Aqueducts  are  described  by  Mr.  Bandelier  as  existing  at 
Casa  Grandes,  as  well  as  an  extensive  system  of  irrigation. 
The  following  is  his  description: 

It  is  quite  likely  that  the  main  portion  of  the  field  lay  in  the  bottom 
near  the  river,  where  the  land  is  very  fertile  and  can  be  easily  irrigated. 
The  main  irrigating  ditch  enters  the  ancient  village  from  the  northwest, 
and  can  be  traced  for  a  distance  of  two  or  three  miles.  It  takes  its  origin 
about  three  miles  from  the  ruins,  at  the  foot  of  the  higher  slopes  and  near 
a  copious  stream.  It  looks,  therefore,  as  if  it  had  conducted  the  water 
from  the  spring  to  the  settlement,  for  household  purposes  only.  After  pass 
ing  a  peculiar  structure,  it  empties  into  a  circular  tank,  the  diameter  of 
which  is  forty-five  feet,  its  depth  five  feet,  and  continues  its  course  to 
another  tank,  seventy-two  feet  in  diameter,  with  a  rim  three  feet  high  and 
thirty-nine  feet  wide;  this  tank  is  six  feet  deep  in  the  centre.  The  acequia 
is  best  preserved  on  the  terrace  northwest  of  the  ruins.  There,  its  course 
is  intercepted  by  gulches.  It  seems  at  a  depth  of  about  four  feet  below 
the  present  surface.  A  layer  of  calcareous  concrete  formed  the  bottom  of  a 
shallow  trough,  through  which  the  water  was  conducted.  This  channel  is 
about  ten  feet  wide,  and  was  carried  with  a  steady  and  very  gradual 
decline  by  means  of  artificial  fillings,  and  probably  by  wooden  channels, 
across  intervening  gulches. 

Another  acequia,  fourteen  feet  wide,  also  slightly  raised  above  the 
ground,  shows  four  longitudinal  rows  of  stone  laid  at  intervals  of  four  to  six 
teet.  It  looks  more  like  a  road  bed  than  a  ditch.  It  seemed  to  me,  as  if 
both  the  channels  had  been  connected,  and  as  if  they  were  but  branches  of 
the  main  line  running  across  the  terraces,  one  designed  to  fill  the  two 
artificial  basins  near  the  ruins;  the  other  entering  the  bottom.  It  seems 
clear  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Casas  Grandes  had  made  considerable  pro 
gression  in  irrigation,  and  that  it  at  one  time  contained  a  population  more 
dense  than  that  of  any  part  of  the  southwest.  The  ancient  culture  which 
flourished  at  Casas  Grandes  was  similar  to  that  which  existed  on  the  banks 
of  the  Gila  and  Salado,  but  there  was  a  marked  advance  over  any  other 
portion  of  the  southwest,  shown  particularly  in  certain  household  utensils, 
the  existance  of  stairways  in  the  interior  of  houses,  and  in  the  method  of 
the  construction  of  irrigating  ditches.  Nevertheless,  the  strides  made  were 
not  important  enough  to  raise  the  people  to  the  level  of  the  more  southern 
tribes.  Their  plastic  art,  as  far  as  displayed  in  the  few  idols  and  fetiches, 
remains  behind  that  of  the  Nahua,  Zapotecas,  Mayas,  etc.  They  seem  to 
have  reached  an  intermediate  stage  between  them  and  the  Pueblos,  though 
nearer  to  the  latter  than  the  former. 

III.  The  distribution  of  the  irrigating  ditches  wilTbe  next 
considered.  Irrigation  was  practised  by  nearly  all  the  Pueblo 
tribes — those  who  were  situated  on  the  Rio  Grande,  on  the 
Little  Colorado,  on  the  Gila,  on  the  Rio  Verde,  and  possibly  on 
the  Chaco.  The  irrigating  ditches  have  been  recognized  in 
nearly  all  of  these  valleys.  In  giving  the  description  of  these 

*  See  Eighth  Annual  Report,  plates  Ixx.,  Ixxi.  and  Ixxiv. 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION. 


355 


we  shall  quote  the  various  parties  who  have  visited  the  Pueblos. 
We  shall  begin  with  those  of  the  Rio  Grande. 

Mr.  Morgan  refers  to  several  localities  where  irriga 
tion  was  practised,  one  of  them  at  Taos,  and  the  other  at 
Mashongnavi  on  the  Little  Colorado.  Of  Taos  he  says: 

It  is  situated  upon  Taos  Creek  at  the  western  base  of  the  Sierra  Madre 
Range,  which  form  the  eastern  border  of  the  broad  valley  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  into  which  the  Taos  stream  runs.  The  two  structures  stand  about 
twenty-rive  rods  apart  on  opposite  sides  of  the  streams,  facing  each 
other.  The  present  occupants  of  the  pueblo,  about  four  hundred,  are 
divided  between  the  two  houses,  and  they  are  thrifty,  industrious,  and 
intelligent  people.  Upon  the  east  side  is  a  long  adobe  wall,  connecting  the 
two  buildings,  or  rather  protecting  the  open  space  between  them.  A  corre 
sponding  wall  doubtless  closed  the  space  on  the  opposite  side,  thus  forming 
a  large  court  between  the  buildings.  The  creek  is  bordered  on  both  sides 
by  ample  fields  or  gardens,  which  are  irrigated  by  canals  drawing  water 
from  the  streams.  Lieutenant  Ives  observed  gardens  cultivated  by  irriga 
tion  on  the  sides  of  the  bluffs.  Between  the  two,  the  face  of  the  bluff  had 
been  ingeniously  converted  into  terraces.  They  were  faced  with  neat 


IRRIGATING    DITCH    ON    THE    RIO    VERDE. 

masonry,  and  contained  gardens,  each  surrounded  with  a  raised  edge,  so  as 
to  retain  water  upon  the  surface.  Pipes  from  the  reservoirs  permitted  them 
at  any  time  to  be  irrigated.* 

Mr.  F.  VV.  Hodge,  who  was  connected  with  the  Hemming- 
way  expedition,  speaks  of  the  irrigating  canals  of  south 
ern  Arizona  as  indicating  a  large  Pueblo  population  and  a 
high  degree  of  advancement.  He  says: 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  principal  canals  constructed  by  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  the  Salado  valley  alone,  controlled  the  irrigation  of  at  least 
250,000  acres  of  land.  The  outlines  of  150  miles  of  ditches  could  be  easily 
traced.  Their  routes  are  effaced  from  the  more  open  ground,  but  there 
were  concretions  which  had  been  deposited  along  the  banks,  as  "  tamers  of 
the  waters."  These,  with  the  implements  which  had  been  dropped,  were 
sufficient  to  show  the  line  which  had  been  followed.  Near  one  of  the  thirty- 

*"  House  and  House-life,"  page  144. 


356  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

six  large  communial  structures — the  ancient  pueblo,  De  los  Muertos — was 
a  supply  canal,  the  depth  of  which  was  about  seven  feet,  and  the  width 
about  thirty  feet.  This  canal  was  divided  into  two  beds,  the  lowest  being 
about  four  feet  wide,  but  the  sides  broadened  until  a  bench  was  reached, 
which  was  three  teet  wide  on  either  side  ;  from  these  benches  the  b  inks 
continued  broadening  until  they  reached  the  brink.  The  bottom  and  sides 
of  the  canal  were  very  hard,  the  supposition  is  that  they  had  been  plastered 
with  adobe,  and  that  brush  fires  had  been  made  upon  them  till  they  were 
hardened. 

It  is  noticed  that  nearly  all  the  pueblos  were  situated,  not  near  the 
river,  but  near  the  ends  of  the  canals,  showing  that  the  builders  were 
dependent  upon  the  canals  for  subistence.  The  means  of  transportation 
were  furnished  by  the  canals,  so  that  countless  boulders  from  the  river 
bank  had  been  carried  ten  or  twelve  miles  to  the  vicinity  of  the  pueblos. 
At  a  group  of  ruins,  near  Mesa  City,  the  remains  of  an  extensive  irrigation 
system,  the  canal  bed  had  been  carried  through  a  large  knoll  with  incon 
ceivable  difficulty,  in  order  to  reach  the  tract  of  fertile  land. 

The  ancient  canal  was  utilized  by  the  Mormons  for  fully  three  miles, 
with  a  saving  of  from  $20,000  to  $25,000.  The  pueblos  of  the  Gila  were 
generally  larger  than  those  of  the  Salado,  irrigating  canals  were  more 
extensive,  with  many  hillside  reservoirs,  showing  that  an  extensive  popula 
tion  existed  here.  The  sites  of  the  ancient  reservoirs  were  discovered, 
These  were  natural  sinks,  deepened  by  artificial  means,  and  served  the  pur 
pose  of  storage  basins  for  surplus  waters.  One  such  was  found  to  be  a 
mile  long,  and  a  half  mile  wide.  The  most  of  the  valley  lands  were  once 
covered  with  a  network  of  irrigating  ditches. 

In  the  region  of  the  Zunis,  the  canals  have  not  been  traced,  though  the 
snpposition  is  that  they  cultivated  the  soil  in  the  same  way  as  the  western 
tribes  did.  The  description  of  the  Zuni  houses,  furnished  by  historians, 
would  indicate  that  they  were  on  the  summit  of  the  mesas.* 

Mr.  Bandelier  has  also  described  the  irrigating  ditches  in  the 
valley  of  the  Verde  and  elsewhere.  This  region  has  been 
described  by  Mr  Cosmos  Mindeleff.  He  says: 

The  region  which  furnishes  the  best  examples  of  irrigating  ditches  and 
the  greatest  number  of  contrivances  for  cultivating  the  soil  by  this  means, 
is  that  which  is  situated  far  to  the  west  in  the  region  of  Limestone  Creek 
and  the  Rio  Verde,  which  lies  between  the  home  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  at 
the  north,  and  the  ancient  and  ruined  villages  on  the  Gila,  and  to  the  west 
of  the  inhabited  villages  of  the  Moquis  and  Zunis.  This  seems  to  have 
been  a  migrating  route  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  and  possibly  may  have  been 
the  resort  of  tribes  who  were  allied  to  the  Pueblos.  There  are  many  stone 
villages,  cavate  lodges,  boulder  sites  and  other  signs  of  habitation  scattered 
throughout  the  entire  region. 

The  Rio  Verde  is  throughout  its  length  a  mountain  stream.  Rising  in 
the  mountains  and  plateaus  bounding  two  great  connected  valleys  north 
west  of  Prescott,  known  as  Big  Chino  valley  and  Williamson  valley,  both 
over  4,000  feet  above  the  sea,  it  discharges  into  Salt  river  about  ten  miles 
south  of  McDowell  and  about  twenty-five  miles  east  of  Phrenix,  at  an  ele 
vation  of  less  than  1,800  feet  above  the  sea.  The  fall  from  Verde  to 
McDowell,  a  distance  of  about  sixty-five  miles,  is  about  1,500  feet.  The 
whole  course  of  the  river  is  but  little  over  150  miles. 

Its  rapid  tall  would  make  the  river  valuable  for  irrigation  if  there  were 
tillable  land  to  irrigate;  but  on  the  west  the  river  is  hugged  closly  by  a 
mountain  chain  whose  crest,  rising  over  6,000  feet  above  the  sea,  is  some 
times  less  than  two  miles  from  the  river,  and  whose  steep  and  rugged  sides 
descend  in  an  almost  unbroken  slope  to  the  river  bottom.  The  eastern 
side  of  the  river  is  also  closely  confined,  though  not  so  closely  as  the  west 
ern,  by  a  chain  of  mountains  known  as  the  Mazatzal  range. 

Most  of  the  modern  settlements  of  the  Rio  Verde  are  along  the  upper 

*See  "  Prehistoric  Irrigation,"  by  F.  W.  Hodge. 


GARDEN  BEDS  AT  ZUXI. 


CORRALS  AT  PESCADO. 


BUFFALO    AND    HUNTERS,    PORTRAYED    BY    DE    BRY. 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION.  359 

portion  of  its  course.  Prescott  is  situated  on  Granite  creek,  one  of  the 
sources  ot  the  river,  and  along  other  tributaries,  as  tar  down  as  the  southern 
end  af  the  great  valley  in  whose  centre  Verde  is  located,  there  are  many 
scattered  settlements;  but  from  that  point  to  McDowell  there  are  hardly  a 
dozen  houses  all  told.  This  region  is  most  rugged  and  forbidding.  There 
aie  no  roads,  and  few  trails,  and  the  latter  are  feebly  marked  and  little  used. 
The  former  inhabitants  ot  this  region  were  an  agricultural  people,  and 
their  villages  were  always  located  either  on  or  immediately  adjacent  to 
some  area  of  tillable  soil.  This  is  true  even  of  the  cavate  lodges,  which 
are  often  supposed  to  have  been  located  solely  with  reference  to  facility  of 
defense.  Perched  on  the  hills  overlooking  these  bottoms,  and  sometimes 
located  on  the  lower  levels,  there  was  once  a  number  of  large  and  important 
vidages,  while  in  the  regions  on  the  south,  where  the  tillable  areas  are  as  a 
rule  very  much  smaller,  the  settlements  were,  with  one  exception,  small 
and  generally  insignificant. 

The  irrigating  ditches  in  the  valley  of  the  Verde  are,  per 
haps,  the  most  interesting  of  any,  as  they  form  a  most  important 
feature  of  the  region,  and  are  very  conspicuous;  in  fact,  the 
most  conspicuous  objects  in  the  landscape.  The  age  of  these 
ditches  is  unknown,  but  they  are  old  enough  to  have  been 
affected  by  the  changes  of  nature,  and  so  may  be  ascribed  to  a 
geological  age,  though  a  very  recent  epoch  in  that  age.  They 
are  connected  with  boulder  sites  and  ancient  ruins,  which  seem 
very  ancient,  but  which  were  erected  by  the  earlier  Pueblo 
tribes,  as  temporary  residences  while  working  the  fields. 

The  following  is  the  description  of  one  of  these  ditches 
given  by  Mr.  Mindeleff : 

One  ot  the  finest  examples  of  an  aboriginal  irrigating  ditch  that  has 
come  under  the  writer's  notice,  occurs  about  two  miles  below  the  mouth  of 
Limestone  creek,  on  the  opposite  or  eastern  side  of  the  river.  At  this 
point  there  is  a  large  area  of  fertile  bottom  land,  now  occupied  by  some 
half  dozen  ranches,  known  locally  as  the  Lower  Verde  settlement.  The 
ditch  extends  across  the  northern  and  western  part  of  this  area.  The  plate 
shows  a. portion  of  this  ditch  at  a  point  about  one-eighth  of  a  mile  east  of 
the  river.  Here  the  ditch  is  marked  by  a  very  shallow  trough  in  the  grass- 
covered  bottom,  bounded  on  either  side  by  a  low  ridge  of  earth  and  pebbles. 
North  of  this  point  the  ditch  can  not  be  traced,  but  here  it  is  about  forty 
feet  above  the  river,  and  about  ten  feet  above  a  modern  (American)  ditch. 
It  is  probable  that  the  water  was  taken  out  of  the  river  about  two  miles 
above  this  place,  but  the  ditch  was  run  on  the  sloping  side  of  the  mesa 
which  has  been  recently  washed  out.  • 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  ancient  ditch  did  not  irrigate 
nearly  the  whole  area  of  bottom  land.  The  ancient  ditch  is  well  marked 
by  two  clearly  defined  lines  of  pebbles  and  small  boulders,  as  shown  in  the 
illustration.  Probably  these  pebbles  entered  into  its  construction,  as  the 
modern  ditch,  washed  out  at  its  head  and  abandoned  more  than  a  year  ago, 
shows  no  trace  of  a  similar  marking. 

A  little  west  and  south  of  the  point  shown  in  the  cut  the  bottom  land 
drops  off  by  alow  bench  of  three  or  four  feet  to  a  lower  level  or  terrace, 
and  this  edge  is  marked  for  a  distance  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  by  the 
remains  of  a  stone  wall  or  other  analogous  structure.  This  is  located  on 
the  extreme  edge  of  the  upper  bench,  and  it  is  marked  on  its  higher  side 
by  a  very  small  elevation.  On  the  outer  or  lower  side  it  is  more  clearly 
visible,  as  the  stones  of  which  the  wall  was  composed  are  scattered  over 
the  slope  marking  the  edge  of  the  upper  bench.  At  irregular  intervals 
along  the  wall  there  are  distinct  rectangular  areas  about  the  size  of  an 
ordinary  pueblo  room,  i.e. /about  eight  by  ten  and  ten  by  twelve  feet. 

In  February,  1891,  there  was  an  exceptional  flood  in  the  Verde  river, 
due  to  prolonged  hard  rain.  The  river  in  some  places  rose  nearly  twenty 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


MAP    OF    ANCIENT    DITCH. 


feet,  and  at  many  points  washed  away  its  banks  and  changed  the  channel. 
The  river  rose  on  two  occasions;  during  its  first  rise  it  cut  away  a  consider 
able  section  of  the  bank,  near  a  point  known  as  Spanish  Wash,  about  three 
and  one-half  miles  below  Verde,  exposing  an  ancient  ditch.  During  its 
second  rise  it  cut  away  still  more  of  the  bank  and  a  part  of  the  ancient 
ditch  exposed  a  few  days  before.  The  river  here  makes  a  sharp  bend  and 
flows  a  little  north  of  east.  The  modern  American  ditch,  which  supplied 
all  the  bottom  lands  of  the  Verde  west  of  the  river,  was  ruined  in  this 

vicinity  by  the  flood 
that  uncovered  the 
old  ditch.  The  cut 
is  a  map  of  the 
ancient  ditch  drawn 
in  the  field,  with 
contours  a  foot 
apart,  and  showing 
also  a  section,  on  a 
somewhat  larger 
scale,  drawn  be 
tween  the  points  A 
and  B  on  the  map. 

Plate   A  is  a  V1CW  of 

the    ditch     looking 

westward  across  the  point  where  it  has  been  washed  away,  and  plate  B 
shows  the  eastern  portion,  where  the  ditch  disappears  under  the  bluff. 

The  bank  of  the  river  at  this  point  consists  of  a  low  sandy  beach,  from 
ten  to  fifty  feet  wide,  limited  on  the  south  by  a  vertical  bluff  ten  to  twelve 
feet  high,  and  composed  of  sandy  alluvial  soil.'  This  bluff  is  the  edge  of 
the  bottom  land  before  referred  to,  and  on  top  is  almost  flat  and  covered 
with  a  growth  of  mesquite,  some  of  the  trees  reaching  a  diameter  of  more 
than  three  inches.  The  American  ditch,  which  is  shown  on  the  map,  runs 
along  the  top  of  the  bluff  skirting  its  edge,  and  is  about  fourteen  feet  above 
the  river  at  its  ordinary  stage.  The  edge  of  the  bluff  is  shown  on  the  map 
by  a  heavy  black  line.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  ancient  ditch 
occurs  on  the  lower  flat,  about 
three  feet  above  the  river  at  its 
ordinary  stage,  and  its  remains 
extend  over  neaily  500  feet. 
The  line,  however,  is  not  a 
straight  one,  but  has  several 
decided  bends.  The  cut  shows 
this  ancient  ditch  just  where  it 
turned  southward  and  passed 
under  the  bluff. 

About  fifty  feet  north  of  the 
main  ditch,  at  the  point  where 
it  passes  under  the  bluff,  there 
are  remains  of  another  ditch,  as 
shown  on  the  map.  This  second 
ditch  was  about  a  foot  higher 
than  the  main  structure,  or  about 

four  feet  above  the  river;  it  runs  SECTION  OF  THE  DITCH. 

nearly  parallel  with  it  for  about 

thirty  feet  and  then  passes  into  the  bluff  with  a  slight  turn  toward  the  north. 
It  is  about  the  same  size  as  the  main  ditch. 

As  already  stated,  the  American  ditch  is  about  fourteen  feet  above  the 
river,  while  the  ancient  ditch  is  less  than  four  feet  above  the  water.  This 
decided  difference  in  level  indicates  a  marked  difference  in  the  character  of 
the  river.  The  destruction  of  the  modern  ditch  by  the  flood  of  1891  is  not 
the  first  mishap  of  that  kind  which  has  befallen  the  settlers.  The  ditch 
immediately  preceding  the  current  one  passed  nearly  over  the  centre  of 
the  ancient  ditch,  then  covered  by  ten  feet  or  more  of  alluvial  soil,  and  if  a 


PREHISTORIC    IRRIGATION.  361 

ditch  were  placed  to-day  on  the  level  of  the  ancient  structure  it  would  cer 
tainly  be  destroyed  every  spring.  The  water  that  flowed  through  the 
modern  ditch  was  taken  from  the  river  at  point  about  three  miles  tarther 
northward,  or  just  below  Verde.  The  water  for  the  ancient  ditch  must 
have  taken  out  less  than  a  mile  above  the  southern  end  of  the  section 
shown  in  the  map. 

At  first  sight  it  would  appear  that  the  ancient  ditch  antedated  the 
deposit  of  alluvial  soil  forming  the  bottom  land  at  this  point,  and  this  hypo 
thesis  is  supported  by  several  facts  of  importance.  It  is  said  that  ten  years 
ago  the  boitom  land,  whose  edge  now  forms  the  bluff  referred  to,  extended 
same  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  farther  out,  and  that  the  river  then  flowed  in 
a  channel  some  200  or  300  feet  north  of  the  present  one.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
the  bottom  land  now  presents  a  fairly  continuous  surface,  from  the  banks 
of  the  river  to  the  foothills  that  limit  the  valley  on  the  west  and  south,  and 
it  is  certain  that  this  bottom  land  extended  over  the  place  occupied  by  the 
ancient  ditch;  nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  ancient  ditches  ended 
abruptly  at  the  point  where  they  now  enter  the  bluff.  The  curves  in  the 
line  of  the  ancient  ditch  might  indicate  that  it  was  constructed  along  the 
slope  of  a  hill,  or  on  an  uneven  surface,  as  a  deep  excavation  in  fairly  even 
ground  would  naturally  be  made  in  a  straight  line. 

In  conclusion,  it  should  be  noted,  in  support  of  the  hypothesis  that  the 
ditch  was  built  before  the  material  composing  the  bluff  was  laid  down,  that 
immediately  under  the  ditch  there  is  a  stratum  of  hard  adobe-like  earth, 
quite  different  from  the  sand  above  it  and  from  the  material  of  which  the 
bluff  is  composed. 

The  hypothesis  which  accords  best  with  the  evidence  now  m  hand,  is 
that  which  assumes  that  the  ditch  was  taken  out  of  the  river  but  a  short  dis 
tance  above  the  point  illustrated,  and  that  it  was  built  on  the  slope  of  a  low 
hill,  or  on  a  nearly  flat  undulating  bottom  land,  before  the  material  compos 
ing  the  present  bottom  or  river  terrace  was  deposited,  and  'that  the  ditch, 
while  it  may  be  of  considerable  antiquity,  is  not  necessarily  more  than  a 
hundred  or  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  old;  in  other  words,  we  may  reach  a 
fairly  definite  determination  of  its  minimum,  but  not  of  its  maximum 
antiquity. 

This  description  of  the  irrigation  on  the  Rio  Verde  has  been 
given  in  all  its  details  and  in  the  words  of  the  explorer,  that  the 
reader  may  learn  the  character  of  the  works  and  from  it  judge 
what  their  routes  were.  The  enquiry  which  proves  the  most 
interesting  is  the  one  which  relates  to  the  age  of  the  ditch. 
We  have  seen  that  Mr.  Mindeleff  considers  the  ditch  to  be 
comparatively  modern — not  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
old;  but  the  recent  discovery  of  an  irrigating  ditch  in  a  region 
somewhat  remote  from  this  seems  to  controvert  the  opinion,  or 
at  least  shows  that  there  are  ditches  which  are  older,  in  fact  so 
old  as  to  be  carried  back  to  a  geological  period  when  the  lava 
beds  were  in  a  state  of  formation. 

The  account  of  it  is  given  in  the  New  York  Tribune  and 
qnoted  in  the  American  Architect  and  Building  News.  It  is 
as  follows: 

Discoveries  were  made  recently  in  the  lava  beds  of  New  Mexico,  some  of 
which  are  situated  eighteen  miles  west  of  Santa  Fe,  which  prove  that  thou 
sands  of  years  ago  there  existed  in  New  Mexico  a  system  of  reservoirs  and 
irrigation  viaducts  that  is  unparalleled  at  this  age.  Under  the  lava,  which 
covers  hundreds  of  square  miles,  are  found  traces  of  cemented  ditches  and 
reservoirs  that  are  marvels  of  civil  engineering.  Irrigation  engineers  have 
much  to  learn  from  the  people,  older  than  the  Pueblo  race,  who  inhabited 
New  Mexico  when  the  race  from  which  Columbus  sprang  were  still  bar- 


362  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

barians.  The  ancients  provided  against  seepage  by  cementing  the  bottoms 
of  their  ditches  wherever  they  are  conducted  across  loose  soils.  Their 
ditches  wound  in  and  out  at  the  base  of  mountain  ranges,  following  the 
sinuosities  of  canyons  and  rounding  points  in  such  a  manner  as  to  catch  all 
the  storm  water  before  it  was  absorbed  by  the  loose  sands  at  the  mountains' 
base.  Reservoirs  at  convenient  basins  stored  the  water,  which  was  led  in 
cemented  ditches  across  the  loose  soils  to  where  it  was  needed  for  use. 
Chasms  were  crossed  by  viaducts,  and  wonderful  engineering  devices  were 
used  for  the  removal  of  silt  that  might  be  used  as  an  aid  to  the  fertility  of 
loose  and  rocky  soils  otherwise  valueless.  Into  some  of  the  ditches  lava 
has  run,  showing  their  great  antiquity.  Others  are  now  coveied  with  shift 
ing  sands,  but  enough  are  still  visible  in  many  places  in  New  Mexico  to 
enable  the  skilled  engineer  to  understand  the  system  which  the  prehistoric 
New  Mexicans  rendered  so  effective. 

This  discovery  seems  to  indicate  .that  the  period  in  which 
the  stone  pueblos  and  the  irrigating  ditches  were  constructed 
was  of  much  greater  antiquity  than  has  been  supposed,  for 
they  show  the  character  of  the  people  who  built  the  canals 
and  used  the  water  for  irrigating  their  fields.  It  also  gives 
us  many  hints  as  to  the  different  places  in  which  irrigation  was 
practiced,  as  well  as  the  different  stages  of  progress  through 
which  the  inhabitants  passed.  The  very  existence  of  these 
canals,  or  ditches,  proves  that  the  inhabitants  had  changed 
from  the  hunter  life  to  the  agricultural,  and  that  with  this 
change  there  had  come  an  entirely  different  condition  of 
society.  The  people  were  no  longer  nomads,  wandering  from 
place  to  place,  without  any  settled  home,  but  were  sedentary 
and  lived  in  permanent  villages.  No  longer  savages  governed 
by  every  new  impulse,  but  were  organized  into  village  com 
munities,  and  were  brought  under  a  government  suited  to  the 
village  life. 

The  date  at  which  this  change  occurred  can  not  now  be 
determined,  but  if  the  report  which  has  been  quoted  above  is 
true  and  the  facts  are  as  they  are  stated,  it  must  have  been  far 
back  in  prehistoric  times,  before  any  of  the  known  wild  tribes 
had  invaded  the  region,  and  when  the  geological  conditions 
were  very  different  from  what  they  are  at  present.  Still,  it  is 
wise  to  hold  our  minds  in  suspense  until  the  facts  are  fully 
known  and  data  shall  be  secured^  which  shall  prove  that  the 
conclusion  is  correct. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PUEBLO  ARCHITECTURE. 

Various  opinions  have  been  advanced  as  to  the  origin  of 
pueblo  architecture.  The  most  plausible  of  these  is  that  it 
grew  up  in  the  very  region  where  it  appears,  and  was  the  result 
of  the  environment.  The  shape  of  the  cliffs  suggested  the 
idea  of  building  the  houses  in  terraces,  and  the  rough  stones, 
of  which  there  was  an  abundance  in  this  region,  furnished  the 
material  for  the  walls.  It  is  an  opinion  advanced  by  many  that 
the  pueblos  were  not  built  all  at  once,  but  that  they  commenced 
as  a  smaller  edifice,  and  that  as  the  inhabitants  grew  more 
numerous  it  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  single  apartments. 
The  theory  is  that  every  single  apartment  is  a  unit.  The  pueblo 
is  formed  from  a  combination  of  these  square  apartments,  very 
much  as  a  honey  comb  is  formed  by  the  combination  of  many 
separate  cells.  There  must  be,  however,  a  cause  which  will 
account  for  the  combination.  But  what  was  the  cause?  In  the 
case  of  the  honey  comb  there  is  an  organism  which  is  full 
of  life,  and  which  works  according  to  instinct  without  any 
variation.  The  instinct  of  the  bee  requires  it  to  gather 
honey,  not  only  for  itself,  but  for  the  entire  hive,  and  store  it 
in  the  cells.  The  question  is  whether  there  was  such  a  cause 
among  the  people  who  built  the  pueblos.  In  answer  to  this, 
we  might  say  that  the  mode  of  subsistence  which  was  best 
adapted  to  this  region  was  that  form  of  agriculture  which  was 
conducted  by  the  whole  community,  and  which  supplied  the 
wants  of  all  in  the  pueblo.  There  was,  however,  an  organism 
which  resembled  that  which  appears  among  the  bees,  even  a 
government,  which  might  be  compared  to  theirs,  embodied 
in  what  is  called  the  village  community,  which  is  an  almost  uni 
versal  form  of  life  among  the  uncivilized  races  of  the  earth,  and 
often  results  in  the  appearance  af  communistic  houses. 

On  this  point  we  shall  do  well  to  quote  the  opinion  of  Sir 
Henry  Maine.  He  says:  "It  has  been  assumed  that  the  tribal 
condition  of  society  belonged  at  first  to  clan  communities,  and 
that  when  associations  of  men  first  settled  down  upon  land  a 
great  change  occurred.  Such  is  the  case  in  all  countries.  The 
naturally  organized,  self-existing  community  has  been  regarded 
as  an  institution  especially  characteristic  of  the  Aryan  race,  but 
M.  Levalye  has  described  them  as  found  in  Java.  M.  Renan 
discovered  them  among  obscure  Semitic  tribes  in  North  Africa. 
Mr.  Freeman  says:  "  The  Germanic  villages  are  formed  of  men 
bound  together  by  a  tie  of  kindred,  in  its  first  stage,  natural; 
in  its  later  stage,  artificial  (totemistic)" 


364  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Sir  Henry  Maine  says  further:  "The  first  steps  in  the  tran 
sition  seem  to  be  marked  by  the  joint  family  of  the  Hindoos, 
by  the  house  community  of  the  Sclavonians,  and  by  the  true 
village  community  as  found  in  Russia.  The  Hindoo  families 
are  joint  in  food,  in  worship  and  estate,  and  are  constantly  en 
gaged  in  the  cultivation  of  the  land.  What  holds  them  together 
is  not  the  land,  but  consanguinity.  In  Russia  the  relationship 
is  no  longer  to  be  found,  but  the  Russian  peasants  really  believe 
in  the  common  ancestry.  Accordingly,  the  arable  lands  are 
periodically  redistributed." 

"  In  comparing  the  two  extant  types  of  the  village  commun 
ity,  the  common  dwelling  and  the  common  table  which  belonged 
to  the  joint  family  and  to  the  house  community,  are  no  longer 
to  be  found.  The  village  is  an  assemblage  of  houses  contained 
within  narrow  limits  but  composed  of  separate  dwellings,  each 
zealously  guarded  from  the  intrusion  of  a  neighbor." 

Here,  then,  we  trace  the  origin  of  the  pueblo  life  to  the 
change  from  the  nomadic  state  to  the  sedentary  condition,  in 
other  words,  from  hunting  to  agriculture,  though  the  consanguin 
ity  which  prevailed  in  the  earlier  condition  is  retained  in  the  later, 
either  by  artificial  ties,  such  as  totemism,  or  imaginary  descent 
from  a  common  ancestry.  This  is  the  theory  advanced  by  those 
who  have  been  studying  the  village  community  in  such  far 
away  lands  as  India,  Russia,  Sclavonia,  Germany,  and  northern 
Africa. 

We  find  the  germ  of  pueblo  life  and  architecture  to  be  con 
tained  in  the  village  community;  or,  in  other  words,  the  clan 
village,  which  exists  in  its  earliest  stages  among  the  nomads, 
but  which  is  carried  to  a  higher  stage  among  the  sedentary 
tribes,  and  which  ultimately  results  in  the  ancient  city.  The 
village  community  was  not  transplanted,  but  grew  up  spontan 
eously  from  the  organism  which  inhered  with  primitive  society 
and  appeared  on  the  different  continents.  Many  specimens  of 
the  village  community  are  found  in  America,  and  the  archi 
tecture  is  everywhere  correlated  to  it. 

Even  the  wild  tribes  which  still  inhabit  the  pueblo  region, 
all  live  in  villages  and  build  their  houses  in  clusters  and  are 
ruled  by  some  village  chief.-  There  are  houses  in  Arizona, 
which  were  built  of  wattle-work  in  rectangular  form  and 
arranged  in  rows  about  a  central  area,  which  constitute  a  vil 
lage.  There  are  others  in  Oregon,  which  were  built  in  long 
rows,  all  under  one  roof,  with  passageways  between  the  houses. 

Lewis  and  Clarke  describe  such  as  are  situated  on  the  head 
waters  of  the  Missouri,  and  Dr.  Walter  Fewkes  describes  the 
ruins  of  others  in  Arizona.  These  were  the  abodes  of  the 
nomadic  tribes,  but  mark  the  transition  from  the  nomadic  to 
the  sedentary  state. 

There  were  many  things  involved  in  the  change  from  the 
wandering  life  to  the  permanent  village  community.  In  the 
first  place,  the  round  hut  of  the  hunter  gave  place  to  the  square 
rectangular  house  of  the  agriculturist,  the  stone  being  used 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PUEBLO  ARCHITECTURE.         365 

for  wood  and  becoming  an  index  of  the  new  social  status.  The 
straggling  village,  composed  of  houses  stretched  along  the  side 
of  the  stream,  or  of  the  ditch,  with  a  citadel  in  the  centre^  may 
have  marked  the  intervening  period.  The  straggling  village 
gave  place  to  the  compact,  terraced  and  many-storied  pueblo. 
The  ordinary  spring,  which  flowed  out  from  beneath  the  rocks 
and  supplied  the  rude  camp  with  drinking  water,  was  sup 
planted  by  the  spring  which  was  walled  up  and  was  furnished 
with  drinking  vessels  which  were  sacred  to  the  water  divinities 
and  were  covered  with  the  symbols  of  a  new  religion.  The 
religion  of  the  people  was  also  changed.  While  they  retained 
their  clan  totems  in  the  shape  of  animal  images  as  fetiches, 
these  no  longer  icpresented  the  divinities  of  the  clans,  but  were 
supposed  to  be  the  divinities  of  the  sky  and  ruled  the  different 
parts  of  the  sky  and  the  earth  and  the  above  and  below.  The 
priesthood  of  the  bow  was  substituted  for  the  medicine-man, 
and  the  offerings  were  made  to  the  sun  and  moon  and  such 
Nature  powers  as  wind  and  lightning,  and  especially  the  rain. 

The  domestic  life  of  the  people  was  also  changed,  for  the 
women  were  no  longer  the  chief  providers  for  the  household, 
nor  were  they  the  slaves  of  the  men,  but  they  had  control  of 
the  household  and  dwelt  with  the  children  in  apartments  by 
themselves;  the  men  having  their  assembling  place  with  the 
secret  societies  in  the  kivas,  which  are  most  of  them  under 
ground. 

The  provisions  for  defence  were  greatly  changed.  The  rude 
stone  circle  on  some  isolated  spot,  which  was  used  as  an  out 
look,  gave  place  to  the  lofty  stone  tower  situated  on  the 
promontory,  or  the  summit  of  the  mesa.  The  mountain  path 
gave  place  to  the  trail  with  supporting  walls;  the  rude  ladder, 
to  the  stone  stairway,  and  the  shrine,  which  was  hidden  away 
in  a  cave  or  the  rocks,  was  supplanted  by  the  kiva,  which  was 
full  of  the  symbols  of  the  creation  and  was  used  for  the  initia 
tory  rites  of  the  people.  There  are  many  other  things  which 
mark  the  change  from  the  hunter  state  to  the  agricultural,  and 
it  is  interesting  to  take  these  and  follow  up  the  study,  but  there 
is  another  subject  which  we  need  to  pursue  before  we  under 
stand  the  change  in  all  its  bearings.  The  question  is  whether 
there  are  any  connecting  links  which  exhibit  the  transition 
from  the  wild  life  of  the  hunters  to  the  sedentary  life  of  the 
agriculturists,  or  any  structures  which  show  the  different  stages 
through  which  the  people  passed.  In  answer  to  this  question, 
we  will  say  that  there  are  such  links,  though  the  difficulty  is  to 
find  them  and  identify  them,  for  in  the  majority  of  places  they 
have  been  obscured  by  the  later  inventions  and  by  the  accumu 
lations  of  time.  There  is,  however,  one  locality  in  which  the 
structures  are  very  rude  and  show  all  stages  of  progress  and 
where  the  relics  seem  to  correspond,  and  which  furnishes  us  an 
excellent  field  for  this  study.  It  is  found  in  the  western  part 
of  the  Pueblo  territory,  which  has  long  been  deserted  by  the 
Pueblos  and  is  not  even  claimed  by  the  wild  tribes.  This  dis- 


366  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

trict  was  one  of  the  last  to  be  explored,  and  is  very  important 
because  of  its  bearing  upon  the  history  and  antiquity  of  the 
Pueblos  and  the  Cliff-Dwellers,  as  it  is  situated  on  the  borders 
of  the  Pueblo  territory  and  between  the  old  habitat  of  the  Cliff- 
Dwellers  on  the  San  Juan  and  that  of  the  Pueblos  who  dwelt 
on  the  Gila  and  the  Salado  rivers,  and  possibly  lay  in  the  line 
of  the  migrations  which  occurred  among  the  different  tribes. 
It  is  a  region  full  of  ruins,  all  of  which  have  been  deserted  and 
are  now  silent  and  desolate. 

This  region,  comprising  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Verde  in 
Arizona,  and  from  Verde  to  the  confluence  with  the  Salt  river, 
contains  a  great  number  of  ruins,  many  of  which  seem  to  have 
been  agricultural  settlements,  and  so  are  especially  worthy  of 
notice.  These  were  first  mentioned  by  Mr.  Leroux,  who 
accompanied  Lieut.  Whipple's  party  as  guide,  in  1856;  after 
ward  described  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Hoffman,  who  was  connected  with 
the  Hayden  Survey  in  1876*  ;  by  Dr.  E.  A.  Mearns,  U.  S.  A.,  who 
was  stationed  for  some  years  at  Camp  Verde,  and  by  Cosmos 
Mindeleff,  who  was  connected  with  the  Ethnological  Bureau, f 

The  ruins  of  this  region  may  be  divided  into  several  classes, 
which  mentioned  in  the  reverse  order  of  their  succession  would 
be  about  as  follows:  First,  stone  villages  on  bottom  lands; 
second,  stone  villages  on  defensive  sites;  third,  cavate  lodges; 
fourth,  boulder-marked  sites;  fifth,  cliff  villages. 

The  first  class  resemble  the  Pueblos  farther  east,  for  they 
have  courts  in  the  interior  surrounded  by  compact  apartments. 
There  is  an  occasional  single  room  in  the  interior  of  the  court 
which  resembles  a  kiva  also.  Those  of  the  second  class  are 
generally  furnished  with  defensive  walls,  and  are  placed  on 
sites  where  the  ground  falls  away  so  suddenly  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  climb  up  without  artificial  aid.  The  cavate 
lodges  are  dug  into  the  sides  of  a  cliff  at  varying  heights, 
sometimes  making  two  rows,  one  above  the  other.  They  gen 
erally  overlook  areas  of  tillable  land.  They  give  every  evi 
dence  of  having  been  occupied,  for  they  have  door-ways,  fire 
places,  and  separate  rooms.  The  boulder  sites  are  the  rudest 
of  all,  so  rude,  in  fact,  that  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  under 
stand  their  object.  The  masonry  does  not  compare  with  the 
fine  work  done  by  the  cliff  villages,  and  was  so  roughly  and 
carelessly  executed  as  to  give  little  evidence  of  such  details  as 
door  and  window  openings.  The  rough  and  unfinished  surface, 
and  the  use  of  an  inferior  material  close  at  hand,  rather  than  a 
better  material  a  short  distance  away,  indicates  ignorance  on 
the  part  of  the  builders  of  many  constructive  devices.  The 
cavate  lodges  may  be  ranked  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale; 
the  stone  villages  with  courts,  the  top  of  the  scale,  and  the 
boulder  sites  and  cliff  villages  in  the  middle,  or  as  intervening 
links. 

*See  Hayden's  Survey,  Tenth  Annual  Report    (1878),    page  478:    also.  Popular   Science 
Monthly  for  1890. 

tSee  Thirteenth  Annal  Report  (1891-93);  Washington,  1896;  page  185. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PUEBLO  ARCHITECTURE.         367 

The  ruins  of  this  region  are  important  for  several  reasons. 
First,  they  show  the  great  difference  between  the  houses  of 
the  agricultural  and  the  wild  tribes;  second,  they  throw  light 
on  the  growth  of  architecture  among  the  Pueblos,  and  the  pro 
gress  which  was  made  after  they  began  the  practice  of  irriga 
tion;  third,  they  furnish  many  hints  as  to  the  migrations  of  the 
people  who  built  the  pueblos  into  their  territory,  though  little 
information  can  be  gained  from  them  in  reference  to  any  migra 
tion  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  out  of  it;  fourth,  they  furnish  the 
earliest  and  most  primitive  form  of  cliff  dwellings,  as  well  as 
the  transition  stages  between  the  rude  huts  of  the  nomadic 
tribes  and  the  advanced  structures  of  the  Pueblos  and  Cliff- 
Dwellers.  The  region  has  been  explored  by  Dr.  J.  Walter 
Fewkes  and  Mr.  Mindeleff,  both  of  whom  regard  it  as  marking 
the  migration  routes  of  the  pueblo  people,  though  they  differ 
with  reference  to  the  direction  which  was  taken;  as  the  first 
traces  them  from  the  south  to  the  north,  the  latter  from  the 
north  to  the  south.  Mr.  Mindeleff  says: 

The  remains  in  the  vallev  of  the  Rio  Verde  derive  an  additional 
interest  from  their  position  in  the  ancient  Pueblo  region.  On  the  one  hand, 
they  are  near  the  southwestern  limit  of  that  region,  and  on  the  other  hand, 
they  occupy  an  intermediate  position  between  the  ruins  of  the  Gila  and 
Salt  river  valleys  and  those  of  the  northern  districts.  Here,  remains  of 
large  villages  with  elaborate  and  complex  ground  plan,  indicating  a  long 
period  of  occupancy,  are  found,  and  within  a  short  distance  there  are  ruins 
of  small  villages  with  very  simple  ground  plan,  both  produced  upon  the 
same  environment;  and  comparative  study  of  the  two  may  indicate  some 
of  the  principles  which  govern  the  growth  of  villages  and  whose  result  can 
be  seen  in  the  ground  plans.  Here,  also,  there  is  an  exceptional  develop 
ment  of  cavate  lodges,  and  corresponding  to  this  development  an  almost 
entire  absence  of  cliff  dwellings  This  region  is  not  equal  to  the  Gila  val 
ley  in  data  for  the  study  of  horticultural  methods  practiced  among  the 
ancient  Pueblos,  but  there  is  enough  to  show  that  the  inhabitants  relied 
principally  and.  perhaps,  exclusively  on  horticulture  for  means  of  subsist 
ence,  and  that  their  knowledge  of  horticultural  methods  was  almost,  if  not 
quite,  equal  to  that  of  their  southern  neighbors. 

It  is  not  known  what  particular  branch  of  the  pueblo  building  tribes 
formerly  made  their  home  in  the  lower  Verde  valley,  but  the  character  of 
the  masonry,  the  rough  methods  employed,  and  the  character  of  the  remains 
suggest  the  Tusayan.  It  has  been  already  stated  that  the  archseologic 
affinities  of  this  region  are  northern,  and  do  not  conform  to  any  type  now 
found  in  the  south;  and  it  is  known  that  some  of  the  Tusayan  gentes— the 
water  people — came  from  the  south.  A  complete  picture  of  aboriginal  life 
dunng  the  occupancy  of  the  lower  Verde  valley  would  be  a  picture  of 
pueblo  life  pursued  in  the  face  of  great  difficulties,  and  with  an  environ 
ment  so  unfavorable  that  had  the  occupation  extended  over  an  indefinite 
period  of  time  it  would  still  have  been  impossible  to  develop  the  great 
structures  which  rt  suited  from  the  settlement  in  Chaco  canyon. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that  all  the  ruins  herein  described 
are  of  buildings  of  the  northern  type  of  aboriginal  pueblo  architecture  and 
seem  to  be  connected  with  the  north  rather  than  the  south. 

In  the  region  under  discussion  cavate  lodges  usually  occur,  in  connec 
tion  with  and  subordinate  to  village  ruins,  and  range  in  number  from  two 
to  three  rooms  to  clusters  of  considerab'e  size.  Here,  however,  the  cavate 
lodge  is  the  feature  which  has  been  most  developed,  and  it  is  noteworthy 
that  the  village  ruins  that  occur  in  connection  with  them  are  small  and  un 
important  and  occupy  a  subordinate  position. 

In  the  cavate  lodges,  window  openings  are  not  found;  there  is  but  one 


368 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


opening.  As  a  rule  the  doorways  are  wider  at  the  top  than  at  the  bottom. 
This  feature  is  shown  in  the  cut  in  which  the  framing  is  extended  up  on  one 
side  only  half  the  height  of  the  opening,  which  is  hollowed  out  to  increase 
its  width.  The  large  opening  on  the  right  was  caused  by  recent  breaking  out 

of  the  wall.  This  is  the  counter 
part  of  the  notched  doorway, 
which  is  the  standard  type  of 
the  cliff  ruins  and  had  its  origin 
in  the  time  when  the  pueblo 
builders  had  no  means  other 
than  blankets  of  temporarily 
closing  door  openings,  and  when 
all  the  supplies  of  the  village 
were  brought  in  on  the  backs  of 
the  inhabitants. 

Storage  cists  are  sometimes 
hewn  out  of  the  rocks  in  the 
exterior  walls  of  the  cliff,  and 
partly  enclosed  by  a  rough, 
circular  wall.  An  example  of 
STORAGE  CIST.  this  kind  is  shown  in  the  cut. 

The  most  interesting  structures  in  this  region  are  the  stone 
villages;  quite  a  number  of  which  have  been  described.  One 
of  them  is  represented  in  the  plate.  It  is  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Verde,  just  below  the  mouth  of  Beaver  Creek,  opposite 
and  a  little  above  Verde. 

It  is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  a  large  village  located  on  a  defensive 
site.  Here,  there  is  a  group 
of  eight  clusters,  extending 
half  a  mile  up  and  down  the 
river,  and  some  of  the  clusters 
have  walls  still  standing  to  the 
height  of  eight  or  ten  feet. 
The  ruins  are  located  on  a 
knoll  which  forms  a  sort  of 
promontory,  or  tongue  of  land 
rising  from  a  flat  bench,  the 
whole,  some  280  feet  above  the 
river  bottom.  'These  clusters 
are  shown  in  their  proper 
position  in  the  plate,  which 
is  a  general  view,  from  the 
east,  and  shows  the  main  ruin 
on  the  Butte.  The  modern 
settlement  seen  in  the  middle 
distance  is  Verde.  There  is 
no  evidence  that  any  portion 
of  this  cluster  attained  a 
greater  height  than  two  stories, 
and  only  a  small  number  of 
rooms  reached  that  height. 
The  tendency  to  cluster  rooms 
in  one  large,  compact  group 
was  undoubtedly  due  prima 
rily  to  hostile  pressure  from  CAVE  FRONT. 
outside.  Another  village  is 

situated  on  a  promontory  on  the  southern  side  of  the  East  Verde. 
The  village  overlooked  a  large  area  of  low  bottom  land,  and  is  itself 
overlooked  by  the  foot-hills  rising  behind  it;  the  high  mesas  forming 
part  of  the  Mazatzal  Mountains.  The  walls  of  this  village  were  built 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PUEBLO  ARCHITECTURE.         371 

of  flat  boulders  and  slabs  of  limestone.  There  were  about  forty  rooms. 
The  village  was  of  considerable  size  and  was  built  up  solidly,  with  no  trace 
of  an  interior  court. 

Ruins  of  villages  built  of  stone  represent  the  highest  degree 
of  art  in  architecture  obtained  by  the  aborigines  of  the  Verde 
Valley,  and  the  best  example  of  this  class  of  ruins  is  found  on 
the  east  side  o¥  the  river,  about  a  mile  above  the  mouth  of 
Limestone  Creek.  This  is  the  largest  ruin  on  the  Verde. 

It  covers  an  area  of  about  160  square  feet,  or  over  five  acres.  It  has 
some  225  rooms  on  the  ground  plan;  most  of  the  rooms  were  but  one  story 
in  height,  but  the  plan  was  similar  in  general  character  to  Zuni.  It  was 
divided  into  a  number  of  courts,  around  which  were  four  well-defined 
clusters;  the  largest  court  was  in  the  centre  of  the  village,  and  within  it  a 
small,  single  room,  which  may  have  been  a  kiva  or  sacred  chamber.  The 
arrangement  of  the  courts  is  suggestive  of  the  continued  growth  of  the 
pueblo  by  accretions  from  the  outside;  the  smaller  courts  were  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  ruins,  and  the  larger  courts  were  ontside  of  these.  Some  of  the 
rooms  are  quite  large,  but  are  oblong,  showing  that  no  roofing  timbers 
longer  than  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  could  be  obtained,  except  only  at  points 
many  miles  distant.  They  were,  therefore,  limited  to  that  length.  The 
division  into  clusters  indicates  an  aggregation  of  related  gentes  banded  to 
gether  for  protection;  also,  a  hostile  pressure  from  the  outside,  and  an  occu 
pancy  extending  over  a  considerable  period  of  time.  Absence  of  clearly- 
defined  passage-ways  to  the  interior  of  the  village  is  noticeable. 

We  turn  from  these  compact  villages  which  were  occupied 
by  related  gentes  and  are  good  specimens  of  pueblo  archi 
tecture,  to  examine  the  boulder  sites  which  are  common  in  the 
same  region,  but  which  mark  the  opposite  extreme  in  the  his 
tory  of  pueblo  architecture.  They  are  very  rude  structures  in 
themselves,  and  are  scarcely  worthy  of  notice,  but  as  they  mark 
a  transition,  from  the  rude  hut  of  the  nomads  to  the  stone 
structures  of  the  agriculturist,  and  the  transition  from  the 
original  village  community  to  landed  estate,  they  prove  very 
interesting. 

All  the  villages  in  the  valleys  were  originally  occupied 
by  agricultural  communities,  but  were  surrounded  by  a  cer 
tain  amount  of  land  which  was  held  in  common  by  the  village 
as  its  territory,  and  was  cultivated  by  the  people  and  its  pro 
ducts  shared  in  common.  Where  the  villages  were  on  mesas  it 
was  the  custom,  among  the  Pueblos,  for  the  people  to  leave  the 
village  itself  and  move  to  some  valley  where  the  soil  was  rich, 
and  there  build  farming  shelters  and  spend  the  summer  in  cul 
tivating  the  soil.  The  land,  here,  did  not  belong  to  indi 
viduals  but  to  the  community,  and  was  free  to  all.  Their  only 
claim  was  that  they  occupied  it  from  season  to  season  and  lived 
off  from  its  products.  The  boulder  sites  indicate  the  spots  where 
these  farming  shelters  were  erected,  or  possibly  the  places  where 
garden-plats  or  corn-fields  were  situated.  The  interest  which 
they  possess  consists  in  the  fact  that  they  present  the  rudest 
form  of  architecture,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  earliest  stage 
of  land  ownership.  If  they  mark  the  sites  of  temporary  shelters, 
rather  than  of  permanent  villages,  they  were  occupied  by 


372  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

fragmentary  bands,  rather  than  by  any  organized  clans,  and 
were  surrounded  by 'lands  which  were  cultivated  in  common  by 
several  villages,  each  band  having  a  right  only  to  the  land  which 
it  cultivated. 

The  fact,  however,  that  these  boulder  sites  were  in  a  region 
where  there  were  cliff-dwellings,  cavate  houses,  irrigating 
ditches,  ruins  of  permanent  compact  villages,  pueblos,  or  soli 
tary  houses,  with  an  occasional  shrine  upon  the  pinnacles 
adjoining,  makes  them  the  more  interesting;  for  they  show  the 
existence  of  village  life,  which  was  greatly  diversified,  and  which 
was  continued  through  many  different  periods,  as  well  as  an 
architecture  which  passed  through  many  different  stages. 

The  cliff-dwellings  of  this  region  are  important,  for  they 
are  the  connecting  links  between  the  rude  structures  of  the 
wild  tribes  and  the  elaborate  pueblos  which  were  occupied  by 
the  agriculturalists.  They  differ  from  the  cliff-dwellings  of 
every  other  region,  in  that  they  are  mere  chambers  built  up 
against  the  wall  of  the  cliff,  and  are  very  rude  in  construction; 
while  the  cliff-dwellings  elsewhere  are  built  upon  solid  ledges, 
and  are  parts  of  villages  which  are  furnished  with  houses, 
estufas,  towers,  courts,  and  all  the  features  of  the  pueblo.  Dr. 
J.  Walter  Fewkes  has  discovered  a  number  of  such  villages  in 
the  Red  Rock,  not  far  from  the  Verde  Valley,  to  which  he  has 
given  certain  names.  They  are:  Palatki,  Horanki,  Red  House, 
and  Bear  House.  He  thinks  that  they  mark  one  of  the  natural 
pathways  or  feasible  routes  of  the  migration  between  the 
southern  prehistoric  people  and  the  northern,  and  thinks  that 
they  indicate  a  transition  stage  of  culture. 

Mr.  Fewkes,  however,  thinks  that  some  of  the  boulder  sites 
were  ancient  garden  beds,  corresponding  to  those  on  the  Gila, 
which  have  been  described  by  Mr.  Bandelier.  If  so,  they  are 
in  contrast  with  the  garden  beds  of  the  Zunis,  and  show  an 
early  stage  of  agriculture.  Mr.  Mindeleff  regards  them  as  the 
foundations  of  houses  or  farming  shelters,  which  were  con 
structed  out  of  wood.  He  says: 

Within  the  limits  of  the  region  here  treated  there  are  many  hundreds 
of  sites  of  s-tructures  and  groups  of  rooms  now  marked  only  by  lines  of 
water  rounded  boulders.  As  a  rule  each  site  was  occupied  by  only  one  or 
two  rooms,  although  sometimes  the  settlement  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  vil 
lage  of  considerable  size.  The  rooms  were  nearly  always  oblong,  similar 
in  size  and  ground  plan  to  the  rooms  composing  the  village  ruins  already 
described,  but  differing  in  two  essential  points,  viz,:  character  of  site  and 
character  of  the  masonry.  As  a  rule  these  remains  are  found  on  and  gen 
erally  near  the  edge  of  a  low  mesa  or  hill  overlooking  some  area  of  tillable 
land,  but  they  are  by  no  means  confined  to  such  locations,  being  often 
found  directly  on  the  bottom  land,  still  more  frequently  on  the  banks  of  dry 
washes  at  the  points  where  they  emerge  from  the  hills,  and  sometimes  on 
little  islands  or  raised  areas  within  the  wash,  where  every  spring  they  must 
have  been  threatened  with  overflow  or  perhaps  even  overflowed.  An 
examination  of  many  sites  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  permanency  was  not 
an  element  of  much  weight  in  their  selection. 

Externally  these  boulder-marked  sites  have  every  appearance  of  great 
antiquity  but  all  the  evidence  obtainable  in'regard  to  them  indicates  that 
the>  were  connected  with  and  inhabited  at  the  same  time  as  the  ot!  er  ru-ns 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PUEBLO  ARCHITECTURE. 


373 


in  the  region  in  which  they  are  found.  They  are  so  much  obliterated  now, 
however,  that  a  careful  examination  fails  to  determine  in  some  cas'es 
whether  the  site  in  question  was  or  was  not  occupied  by  a  room  or  group  of 
rooms,  and  there  is  a  notable  dearth  ot  pottery  fragments  such  as  are  so 
abundant  in  the  ruins  already  described. 

The  boulders  which  now  mark  these  sites  were  probably  obtained  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  points  where  they  were  used.  The  mesa  on 
which  the  ruin  occurs  is  a  river  terrace,  constructed  partly  of  these  boulders; 
they  outcrop  occasionally  on  its  surface  and  show  clearly  in  its  sloping  sides, 
and  the  washes  that  carry  off  the  water  falling  on  its  surface  are  full  of 
them. 

In  the  northern  end  of  the  settlement  there  are  faint  traces  of  what  may 
have  been  an  irrigating  ditch,  but  the  topography  is  such  that  water  could 
not  be  brought  on  top  of  the  mesa  from  the  river  itself.  At  the  southern 
end  of  the  settlement,  northeast  of  the  point  shown  in  the  illustration,  there 
are  traces  of  a  structure  that  may  have  been  a  storage  reservoir.  The  sur 
face  of  the  mesa  dips  slightly  southward,  and  the  reservoir-like  structure  is 

placed  at  a  point 
just  above  the 
head  of  a  large 
wash,  where  a 
considerable 
part  of  the  water 
that  falls  upon 
the  surface  of 
the  mesa  could 
be  caught.  It  is 
possible  that, 
commencing  at 
the  northern  end 
of  the  settle 
ment,  a  ditch  ex 
tended  com 
pletely  through 
it,  terminating  in 
the  storage  re 
servoir  at  the 
southern  end, 
and  that  this 

ditch  was  used  to  collect  the  surface  water,  and  was  not  connected  with  the 
river.  A  method  of  irrigation  similar  to  this  is  practiced  to-day  by  some  of 
the  Pueblo  Indians,  notably  by  the  Hopi,  or  Tusayan,  and  by  the  Zuni.  In 
the  bottom  land  immediately  south  of  the  mesa,  now  occupied  by  several 
American  families,  there  is  a  fine  example  of  an  aboriginal  ditch. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  large  ruin  just  above  Limestone  Creek,  previously 
described,  the  boulder-marked  sites  are  especially  abundant.  In  the  im 
mediate  vicinity  of  that  ruin  there  are  ten  or  more  of  them,  nnd  they  are 
abundant  all  along  the  edge  of  the  mesa  forming  the  upper  river  terrace; 
in  fact,  they  are  found  in  every  valley  and  on  every  point  of  mesa  over 
looking  a  valley  containing  tillage  land. 

,In  the  southern  part  of  the  region  here  treated  boulder-marked  sites 
are  more  clearly  marked  and  more  easily  distinguished  than  in  the  northern 
part,  partly  perhaps  because  in  that  section  the  normal  ground  surface  is 
smoother  than  in  the  northern  section  and  affords  a  greater  contrast  with 
the  site  itself.  The  plate*  shows  one  of  these  boulder-marked  sites  which 
occurs  a  little  below  Limestone  Creek,  on  the  opposite  or  eastern  side  of  the 
river.  It  is  typical  of  many  in  that  district.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
boulders  are  but  slightly  sunk  into  the  soil,  and  that  the  surface  of  the 
ground  has  been  so  slightly  disturbed  that  it  is  practically  level;  there  is  not 
enough  debris  on  the  ground  to  raise  the  walls  two  feet.  The  illustration 
shows,  in  the  middle  distance,  a  considerable  area  of  bottom  land  which 


CAVATE    LODGES    ON   THE    RIO   VERDE. 


*  See  plate  on  page  370. 


374  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

the  site  overlooks.  In  the  plan  this  site  shows  a  number  of  oblong  rectangular 
rooms,  the  longer  axis  of  which  are  not  always  parallel,  the  plan  resembling 
very  closely  the  smaller  stone  village  ruins  already  described.  It  is 
probable  that  the  lack  of  parallelism  in  the  longer  axis  of  trie  rooms  is  due 
to  the  same  cause  as  in  the  village  ruins,  i.  e.,  to  the  tact  that  the  site  was 
not  all  built  up  at  one  time. 

It  is  probable  that  the  boulder-marked  ruins  are  the  sites  of  secondary 
and  temporary  structures,  erected  for  convenience  in  working  fields  near  to 
or  overlooked  by  them  and  distant  from  the  home  pueblo.  The  character 
of  the  sites  occupied  by  them  and  the  plan  of  the  structures  themselves 
supports  this  hypothesis.  That  they  were  connected  with  the  permanent 
stone  villages  is  evident  from  their  comparative  abundance  about  each  of 
the  larger  ones,  and  that  they  were  constructed  in  a  less  substantial  manner 
than  the  home  pueblo  is  shown  by  the  character  of  the  rem?.ins. 

It  seems  quite  likely  that  only  the  lower  course,  or  courses,  of  the  walls 
of  these  dwellings  were  of  boulders,  the  superstructure  being,  perhaps, 
sometimes  of  earth  (not  adobe),  but  more  probably  often  of  the  type  known 
as"jacal" — upright  slabs  of  wood  plastered  with  mud.  This  method  of 
construction  was  known  to  the  ancient  pueblo  peoples,  and  is  used  to-day  to 
a  considerable  extent  by  the  Mexican  population  of  the  southwest,  and  to 
a  less  extent  in  some  of  the  pueblos. 

This  illustration  of  the  beginnings  of  pueblo  architecture  is 
not  as  clear  as  might  be  desired,  yet,  if  we  consider  the  fact 
that  all  kinds  of  structures  are  found  in  this  region,  and  near 
them  various  agricultural  contrivances,  such  as  garden-beds  and 
terraces  on  the  sides  of  the  hills,  farming  stations  in  the  val 
leys  below,  as  well  as  reservoirs  and  irrigating  ditches,  we  shall 
realize  how  close  a  connection  there  was  between  this  archi 
tecture  and  agriculture. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  there  is  no  part  of  the  pueblo  ter 
ritory  where  there  is  a  greater  variety  of  stone  structures,  all 
of  them  rude  and  roughly  built,  but  so  few  specimens  of 
aboriginal  art.  The  region  abounds  with  caves,  cavate  houses, 
a  few  rude  stone-dwellings  with  the  ruins  of  pueblos  scattered 
here  and  there,  but  not  a  single  cliff-dwelling,  or  fortress  or 
tower,  such  as  are  found  in  the  Cliff-Dwellers'  habitat  on  the 
San  Juan,  and  a  very  few  pueblos  which  reached  a  greater  height 
than  a  two-story  building.  There  may  have  been  a  number  of 
straggling  villages,  such  as  abounded  upon  the  Gila  farther 
west;  villages,  such  as  abounded  upon  the  Pimas,  were  the  chief 
feature.  The  region  is  certainly  a  favorable  place  for  the  study 
of  primitive  structures,  and  especially  those  which  were  erected 
by  agricultural  tribes. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES. 

We  now  turn  to  consider  the  relation  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers 
and  the  Pueblos  to  the  wild  tribes.  There  are  several  questions 
which  arise  at  the  outset.  They  are  as  follows:  First,  Can  we 
say  that  any  of  the  wild  tribes  of  to-day  are  actually  survivors 
of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  ?  Second,  if  not,  can  they  be  shown  to  belong 
to  another  stock,  and  one  always  antagonistic  to  the  Pueblo  tribes? 
Third,  if  they  belong  to  the  same  stock,  how  do  we  account  for 
the  great  change  in  the  religious  customs,  mythology,  symbolism, 
art,  architecture,  tribal  organization,  and  government? 

These  questions  are  important  on  account  of  their  bearing 
upon  the  science  of  sociology,  and  their  answer  will  furnish 
a  basis  for  new  theories  as  to  the  beginnings  of  society  and  the 
origin  of  customs  and  habits  which  have  come  down  to  historic 
times.  That  there  is  an  intimate  relation  between  the  savage  and 
his  environment  will  not  be  disputed.  Nature  enters  into  £.nd 
becomes  part  of  the  life  of  a  savage,  to  an  extent  which  we  can 
hardly  conceive.  A  change  of  physical  environment  does  not 
produce  an  immediate  change  in  the  man,  or  in  his  arts,  but  in 
time,  such  must  inevitably  result 

It  is  a  favorite  theory  with  some  of  the  recent  explorers,  that 
they  all  sprang  from  nomadic  tribes  which  drifted  into  the  pueblo 
country,  fell  into  the  same  mode  of  life,  and  adopted  a  similar 
style  of  architecture,  solely  as  a  result  of  environment,  and  in  proof 
of  this,  the  following  arguments  are  used  :  First,  that  the  whole 
pueblo  country  is  covered  with  remains  of  single  rooms  and 
groups  of  rooms,  put  up  to  met  some  immediate  necessity,  and 
all  kinds  of  structures  which  show  the  transition  from  the  single 
rooms  to  the  large  pueblo  with  its  aggregation  of  many  rooms, 
the  single  room  being  the  unit  of  pueblo  construction.  Second, 
that  the  presence  of  circular  chambers,  called  estufas,  in  the 
groups  of  rectangular  rooms,  which  in  their  construction  still 
retain  some  of  the  very  elements  which  are  found  in  the  rude 
huts  which  are  still  occupied  by  the  wild  tribes.  It  is  owing  to 
their  religious  connection  that  the  form  has  been  preserved 
to-day,  carrying  with  it  the  record  of  the  time  when  the  people 
lived  in  round  chambers  or  huts.  This  is  the  argument  used  by 
Mr.  F.  H.  Cushing,  who  maintains  that  the  columns,  or  piers,  in 
the  estufas  are  but  the  survivals  of  the  posts  which  support  the 
roof  and  sides  of  the  wooden  hut,  or  hogan,  which  are  still 
common  and  are  shown  in  the  cut  on  the  next  page.  Third,  the 
/ocal  origin  of  pueblo  architecture  is  favored  by  tb.Q  fact  that; 


376 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


stone,  as  material,  is  everywhere  present,  while  wood  is  very 
scarce,  in  the  pueblo  territory,  and  is  actually  easier  to  build  into 
structures  than  wood.  A  long  period  of  time  must  have  elapsed 
between  the  erection  of  the  first  rude  huts  and  the  building  of 
the  many-storied  pueblos,  but  we  can  imagine  that  the  presence 
of  hostile  tribes  would  drive  the  people  together  and  force  them 
to  build  their  houses  in  the  shape  of  a  fortress.  Moreover,  the 
necessity  of  digging  irrigating  ditches  and  keeping  them  in 
repair  would  favor  the  continuance  of  the  pueblo  life,  even  after 
the  hostility  had  ceased. 

Now,   this    positition    of    the    explorers    who    have    studied 
the  pueblos  certainly  deserves  consideration,  and  perhaps  will  be 


A    NAVAJO   HOGAN. 
Showing  posts,  walls,  and  fire-bed. 

accepted  by  many  readeis;  but  there  are  certain  facts  which  need 
to  be  recounted  before  a  final  conclusion  shall  be  reached,  and  to 
these  points  we  shall  call  attention. 

I.  It  is  a  fact  that  there  is  a  very  great  difference  between 
the  location  and  social  condition  of  the  wild  tribes  and  the  Pueblos, 
and  that  this  difference  existed  at  the  very  outset  of  history. 

We  learn  from  the  Spanish  historians  that  nearly  all  these 
tribes  were  here  at  the  time  of  the  discovery,  and  were  following 
the  same  kind  of  life,  very  little  change  having  occurred  in  them 
in  the  three  hundred  years  which  have  passed.  The  location  of 
these  tribes  can  be  learned  from  the  study  of  the  linguistic  map 


THE  CLIEF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.        377 


prepared  by  Major  J.  W.  Powell.*  They  came  into  this  region  at 
an  unknown  date,  and  have  followed  the  same  mode  of  life 
which  they  do  to-day,  namely  that  of  nomads  and  hunters. 
Each  of  these  tribes  has  its  own  habitat,  though  they  frequently 
wander  beyond  its  limits,  and  carry  on  a  warfare  with  other 
tribes. 

The  Navajos  were  on  their  reservation,  which  was  situated 
on  the  San  Juan  at  the  point  where  the  four  territories — Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Utah  and  Arizona — unite,  the  reservation  taking 
a  part  from  each  of  these  territories.  The  Utes  are  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Navajos,  but  situated  a  little  to  the  west  of 
them.  The  Apaches  are  a  very  fierce  and  warlike  people,  who 
do  not  seem  to  have  had  any  fixed  habitation,  but  roamed  over 
the  entire  region;  sometimes  on  the  Rio  Grande;  sometimes  on 
the  Rio  Gila, 
and  again 
dwelt  on  the 
rivers  in 
Texas.  The 
Comanches 
were  and  still 
are  situated 
at  the  south 
east  of  the 
Apaches.  The 
Mojaves  are 
in  the  same 
region.  The 
Shos  hones 
belong  to  a 
stock  which 
now  covers  the 
and  Texas,  but 
The  Yumas 


MAI 


THE  PUEBLO  TRIBES  AND 
PUEBLOS-t 


LOCATION  OF  THE 


whole  of  Nevada,  Oregon,  Idaho,  Colorado, 
have  never  penetrated  the  Pueblo  region, 
are  California  Indians,  who  dwelt  on  the 
borders  of  the  Pueblo  territory,  but  rarely  entered  it.  All 
of  these  tribes  were  hunters  and,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Pimas,  were  never  agriculturalists.  They  show  in  their 
social  condition,  as  well  as  in  their  habit  and  mode  of  life,  that 

*  Major  Powell  says  that  nearly  the  entire  mountainous  part  of  Colorado  was  held  by  the 
Utes.  Ihe  eastern  part  being  held  by  the  Arapahoes;  southeastern  part  by  the  Cheyennes  and 
the  Kiowas.  The  Comanches  extended  farther  east  into  Texas.  He  says  of  the  Sr-oshones  that 
they  were  limited  at  the  south  by  the  Colorado  River,  but  to  the  southwest  they  pushed  across 
California  to  the  Pacific.  The  Athapascan  was  the  most  northerly  tribe.  They  occupied 
almost  the  whole  of  British  Columbia  and  Alaska,  and  were  divided  into  three  branches — north 
ern,  southern,  and  western  or  Pacific.  The  southern  group  includes  the  Navajos,  the  Apaches, 
and  the  Lipans.  They  number  about  32,889.  The  Navajos,  since  known  to  history,  have  occu- 

S'ed  the  country  on  the  San  Juan  River  in  northern  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Colorado,  and  Utah, 
f   the    Yumas,  the  great  body  of   the  tribes  of  this  family  inhabited  the  peninsula  ot  Lower 
California.     The  Pimas  had  only  a  small  representation  in  southern  Arizona. 

tThe  location  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  is  shown  by  the  map,  which  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Oscar 
Loew,  who  attended  Prot.  Hayden  on  his  first  exploration  in  1876,  and  was  published  in  Peter- 
man's  "  Mittheilungen,"  and  was  incorporated  by  Mr.  Justin  Windsor  in  his  "Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America."  This  map  was  designed  to  show  the  provinces  which  were  occu 
pied  by  the  different  tribes  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  by  the  Spaniards. 


378 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


they  had  an  entirely  different  origin  from  the  Pueblos,  and  that 
their  history  was  in  the  greatest  contrast.  Their  languages  con 
firm  this  conclusion.  The  languages  of  the  Pueblos  are  said  by 
Mr.  A.  S.  Gatschet  to  be  very  similar,  and,  in  fact,  dialectic  varia 
tions  of  the  same  stamp,  which  sprung  from  a  mother  language, 
but  differed  largely  from  the  language  of  the  nomadic  and 
hunter  tribes.  Mr.  Gatschet  divided  the  language  of  the 
Pueblos  into  four  families.  The  first  included  the  inhabitants  of 
Isleta,  Tewas,  Jemez,  Pecos,  Taos,  and  Santa  Clara,  called  the 
Tehua;  the  second  language  is  spoken  in  the  villages  of  Acoma, 
Laguna,  and  Santa  Domingo;  the  third,  the  Zuni  language, 
which  was  confined  to  the  Zuni  villages,  and  the  fourth,  the 
Moqui  language,  spoken  in  six  villages  in  Arizona.  The  isolated 
geographical  location  of  the  inhabited  mesas,  which  were  sur- 


MODERN    PUEBLO    POTTERY. 

rounded  by  the  deserts  on  three  sides,  and  drained  by  the  various 
streams  which  arose,  in  the  mountains  to  the  north,  served  to 
keep  the  Pueblos  apart  for  a  long  time,  and  left  the  people  free 
to  develop  their  institutions  and  social  life  uninterrupted. 

Here,  upon  the  Rio  Grande  and  upon  the  Colorado  and  its 
branches,  with  the  mountains  to  the  north,  and  the  deserts  to  the 
south  and  east,  they  followed  their  peculiar  mode  of  life,  and 
continued  to  develop  the  resources  of  the  country,  struggling 
with  the  difficulties  of  the  climate  and  soil,  until  they  conquered, 
having  learned  the  secrets  of  success  by  their  own  experience. 
They  wrested  from  nature  a  living,  and  grew  into  a  grade  of 
civilization,  which  has  never  been  equaled  by  any  wild  tribe. 
The  momentous  problem  as  to  the  countries  which  were  the 
former  seats  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  before  they  settled  here,  cannot 
be  solved  from  purely  linguistic  data,  as  even  archaeology  and 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.        379 

ethnology  fail  to  furnish  sufficient  evidence.  Ethnology  refuses 
to  remove  the  veil  which  envelops  the  mystery.  Affinities  have 
been  claimed  with  the  Aztecs  and  Central  American  tongues,  but 
are  too  scanty  to  prove  common  origin.  The  wild  tribes  which 
have  been  described  differ  so  much  from  them,  both  in  language 
and  in  customs  and  habits,  that  they  are  acknowledged  to  be 
derived  from  entirely  different  stock.  It  is  easier  to  trace  the 
identity  of  Pueblos  with  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  than  that  of  either 
of  these  with  the  wild  tribes,  for  the  contrasts  appear  as  soon  as 
we  begin  to  study  the  language  and  customs.  Proximity  ot 
territory  is  certainly  not  sufficient  to  prove  identity  of  origin. 
The  Apaches,  Comanches,  and  the  Utes  still  dwell  in  the  region 
which  has  been  considered  the  habitat  of  the  Pueblos.  The 
Navajos  live  in  the  very  midst  of  the  cliff  dwellings,  but  they  do 


MODERN    PUEBLO    POTTERY. 

not  claim  that  either  they  or  their  ancestors  ever  built  these 
dwellings,  though  the  Utes  have  a  few  traditions  as  to  the 
abandonment  of  the  cliff  dwellings,  and  to  the  course  which 
the  people  took  when  they  migrated  to  the  southward. 

The  over  placement  of  the  two  races,  which  was  recognized 
by  the  early  explorers,  seems  to  have  continued  up  to  the  present 
day,  but  has  only  served  to  obscure  the  former  condition  and 
threatened  to  blot  out  the  history  of  the  Cliff- Dwellers  altogether. 
The  conviction,  however,  seems  to  be  growing  that  there  were 
two  great  races — one  earlier,  and  the  other  later;  one  from  the 
north,  and  the  other  from  the  south.  The  two  met  here,  like 
the  great  heaving  tides  from  the  ocean  of  living  beings,  which 
throbbed  with  the  pulsations  which  would  not  cease,  and  heaved 
to  and  fro,  forever  beating  against  the  shores.  The  earth,  like  a 
sleeping  giant,  remained  passive,  while  the  strokes  of  nature  and 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


art  sought  to  wake  it  to  life,  as  the  Scandinavian  god  Thor  did 
the  sleeping  giant,  by  his  hammer.  The  caves,  like  the-  mythical 
glove,  were  open  and  uninhabited  until  the  visitor  from  unknown 
lands  entered  them.  Time  wrestled  with  the  powers  of  nature, 
like  the  hag  with  which  the  god  Thor  contended  and  overcame 
the  giant.  The  drinking  horn  which  connected  with  the  great 
ocean  could  not  be  drained.  There  were  hidden  resources,  of 
which  n^an  had  not  dreamed.  The  wild  tribes  came  out  of 
the  untamed  forests  and  never  learned  the  secrets  that  were  hid 
den  here.  They  never  dispelled  the  charm,  or  solved  the  mys 
tery.  It  took  the  Pueblos  a  long  time  to  learn  the  secret,  and 
much  patience  was  required  before  they  understood  the  moods 
of  their  mother  earth. 

A  war-like  race  and  a 
migratory  people  could  not 
and  would  not  coax  the  soil 
to  yield  its  products.  They 
might  worship  the  gods  of  the 
mountains,  and  might  be  led 
by  the  divinities  who  were 
heroes,  born  on  the  summits 
where  the  clouds  meet;  they 
might  pass  from  house  to 
house,  through  the  many- 
colored  doors  which  separate 
the  clouds  ;  they  might  find 
lodges  in  the  valleys  where 
there  was  a  sleeping  body, 
and  by  a  charm  given  to 
them  by  thf:  divinity,  recover 
the  manhood  which  was  pros 
trate,  and  clothe  themselves 
with  a  power  which  was  lost, 
and  come  forth  as  warriors. 
The  Pueblos  were  a  differ- 
ent  people  from  the  begin-  BELTS  WQVEN  By  TH£  TARAHUMARIS 
ning.  Iney  were  peaceable, 

industrious,  and  mild.  Women  had  a  great  influence  among  the 
Pueblos.  They  were  not  permitted  to  enter  the  estufas,  nor  did 
they  often  bear  office  or  serve  as  rulers,  but  in  their  homes  they 
were  supreme  and  the  children  were  exclusively  under  their  care. 
The  children  were  at  a  certain  age  initiated  into  the  clan  to  which 
their  mothers  belonged,  with  great  ceremony,  and  received  their 
given  names,  the  godfathers  acting  as  sponsors  for  them  ;  the 
priests  serving  as  the  officers  who  were  empowered  to  bestow 
upon  them  the  sacred  gift  of  immortality,  by  breathing  the  breath 
of  divinity  across  the  plume  which  represented  the  prayer  and 
cloud  alike.  The  boys  were,  however,  initiated  into  the  secret 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.       381 

societies  whose  emblem  they  saw  in  their  dreams,  after  they  had 
fasted  long  and  gained  their  second  sight. 

The  Pueblo  life  was  so  different  from  that  cf  an  ordinary 
Indian,  that  we  cannot  understand  them  until  we  rid  ourselves  of 
our  prejudices  and  enter  into  sympathy  with  their  peculiar 
notions.  We  need  to  climb  up  the  steep  trails  to  reach  the  sum 
mit  of  the  mesas,  and  look  away  to  the  mountains  in  the  dis 
tance,  to  realize  how  much  they  were  influenced  in  their  inner 
fibre  by  the  scenery.  Even  the  Cliff- Dwellers  seem  to  have 
been  influenced  by  scenery.  Their  houses  were  built  on  the 
steep  and  inaccessible  cliffs,  and  had  the  least  possible  degree 
of  convenience  to  water,  but  there  was  that  in  their  surroundings, 
which  made  them  superior  to  their  enemies.  They  were  gener 
ally  at  peace  among  themselves,  and  when  surrounded  by 
dangers,  followed  industrious  pursuits  and  cherished  their  love 
of  art. 

II.  We  see  the  contrast  between  the  Pueblos  and  the  wild 
tribes  in  the  specimens  of  art  which  have  been  preserved  ;  their 

basketry  is  often 
woven  into  grace 
ful  shapes  and 
decorated  with 
many  beautiful 
patterns.  Their 
pottery  differed 
from  that  of  the 

LOOM    USED    BY   THE   TARAHUMARIS.  Wild.      1*&™S       '" 

nearly  every  re 
spect,  and  especially  in  the  symbols,  which  are  represented  in  it. 
Some  of  these  symbols  are  very  modern,  for  they  represent  do 
mestic  animals  which  were  introduced  by  white  men  ;  but  others 
present  patterns,  geometrical  figures,  symbols,  and  ornaments, 
which  a  trained  eye  had  learned  to  recognize  in  nature.  They 
represented  the  mountains,  by  terraces  ;  the  sky,  by  arches  ;  the 
winds,  by  coils  and  spiral  lines;  clouds,  by  stepped  figures  ;  the 
sun,  by  a  disc  ;  the  moon,  by  a  crescent ;  the  lightning,  by  the  ser 
pent  ;  the  rain,  by  perpendicular  lines ;  the  rainbow,  by  different 
colors  ;  the  water,  by  certain  animals  ;  the  air,  by  birds  ;  the  earth, 
by  horizontal  lines  ;  the  four  points  of  the  compass,  by  crosses,  and 
the  gods  which  preside  over  the  four  quarters  of  the  sky,  by 
fetishes  in  the  shape  of  animals.  They  covered  themselves  with 
masks,  which  represented  the  dark  creatures  of  the  earth,  and 
were  very  mysterious.  These  were  calculated  to  inspire  the 
children  and  all  spectators  with  terror.  They  covered  their 
divinities  with  masks,  and  hid  the  supernatural  beings  behind  a 
screen  which  was  full  of  emblems  of  the  nature  powers.  If 
there  was  anything  mysterious  in  nature,  they  borrowed  it  to 
put  into  their  masks.  Their  clothing  was  covered  with  symbols. 


382  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

Every  little  figure  which  they  wove  into  their  garments  was  a 
symbol.  Their  sashes,  their  kilts,  their  scarfs  and  necklaces, 
their  greaves,  their  bracelets,  wands,  baskets,  and  bags,  their 
headgear  and  every  article  which  they  wore  was  symbolic. 
The  motions  of  the  dancers,  the  steps  and  attitudes  which  they 
took,  even  the  grotesque  and  accidental  ways  in  which  they 
acted  out  their  thoughts  and  beliefs  were  significant.  The  pour 
ing  of  water  on  processions  as  they  passed,  and  the  tricks  which 
they  played  on  one  another,  were  burlesque  symbols. 

Some  of  the  wild  tribes  had  symbols  and  ornaments  which 
were  similar  to  those  of  the  Pueblos.  The  Navajos  were  especi 
ally  successful  in  making  sand  paintings,  and  were  able  to  give 
a  significance  to  every  part.  They  had  a  mythology  of  their 
own,  which  is  very  beautiful.  The  Navajos  have  many  myths 
which  show  an  inherent  nobility,  and  seem  to  have  caught  some 
inspiration  from  the  mountains. 

It  will  be  acknowledged  that  some  of  the  wild  tribes  are 
skillful  in  weaving  and  pottery.  There  are  no  better  blankets 
than  those  which  are  woven  by  the  Navajos.  The  Tarahumaris, 
who  have  been  oppressed,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  im 
poverished  of  any  of  the  tribes  of  the  south,  are  especially  skillful  in 
weaving  belts.  They  use  a  very  primitive  loom,  which  can  be 
transported  from  place  to  place.  In  weaving,  they  generally 
resort  to  the  shade  of  some  tree,  and  spend  the  time  in  trimming 
the  belts  with  gay  colors  and  various  patterns.  The  following  is 
the  description  of  this  people  given  by  Mr.  Lumholtz: 

The  Tarahumaris  are  intelligent  and  industrious.     They  plant  corn 

upon  the  crests  of  the   Barrancas  in  March,  and  when  the  rain  begins  in 

June  they  descend  into  the  canyon,  to  plant  corn  there.     They  harvest  first 

•  upon  the  high  ridges,  afterwards  in  the  canyons.     They  cultivate  corn, 

beans,  potatoes,  tobacco,  and  pepper. 

Dancing,  with  the  Tarahumaris,  is  a  work  to  secure  rain  and  good  crops. 
There  are  four  or  five  kinds  of  dances  practiced.  Thev  imitate  the  motions 
of  animals,  and  the  songs  implore  the  animals  help.  They  look  upon  plants 
as  individuals  to  be  treated  with  the  utmost  respect,  in  fact,  as  demi-gods, 
to  whom  sacrifice  must  be  offered.  This  plant  worship  is  peculiar  to  them, 
though  animal  worship,  rain  worship,  and  the  snake  dance  are  common 
among  the  Pueblos  farther  north,  as  we  have  seen. 

The  women  are  clever  in  weaving  blankets,  girdles,  and  clothing  on 
primitive  looms;  but  their  pottery  is  exceedingly  crude,  and  its  decoration 
is  infantile,  as  contrasted  with  the  Cliff-Dwellers'  work.  The  people  are 
utterly  devoid  of  the  architectural  gift  which  resulted  in  the  remarkable 
rock  structures  of  the  early  Cliff-Dwellers.* 

This  is  also  true  with  the  Queres,  and  exemplified  in  the 
plainest  manner  through  their  symbolism  The  symbols  of  the 
Queres  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  Zunis.  The  forked  line  not 
only  indicates  lightning,  but  also  the  serpent  with  the  forked 
tongue.  The  water  has  several  symbols,  according  to  the  form 
in  which  it  appears.  As  cloudy  vapor,  it  assumes  the  form  of  a 


*See  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  page 


299. 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.         383 

double  staircase,  imitating  the  cumulus  clouds  which  rise  from 
the  earth  to  the  sky;  or  a  group  of  arches,  emitting  rain  streaks 
and  lightning  darts.  As  streams,  or  water,  resting  or  flowing  on 
the  surface,  are  represented  by  the  snake,  the  snake  with  horns 
and  without  the  rattle;  so  the  rains,  by  the  water  serpent, 
distinct  from  Shrug,  the  rattlesnake.  The  Tzitz  Shrug  is  the 
spirit  of  the  watery  element,  the  horn  is  its  head-dress  or  symbol 
of  spiritual  power.  The  entire  symbolism  of  the  Queres  is 
derived  very  plainly  from  natural  phenomena.  The  spiral, 
double  or  single,  in  curves  or  angular  lines,  stands  for  the  whirl 
wind  ;  the  cross,  for  the  stars  in  general,  an  J  the  white  cross  and 
the  red  cross,  for  the  morning  and  evening  stars,  respectively  ; 
the  tracks  of  the  pheasant  (called  road-runners),  arranged  in  a 
circle,  form  a  magic  ring  around  the  object  or  person  they  sur 
round  ;  here,  as  well  as  at  Zuni,  certain  animals  symbolize  certain 
regions  or  cardinal  points.  There  are  local  shades  in  their  sym 
bolism  that  constitute  differences:  thus  the  colors  attributed  to 
the  six  sacramental  regions  by  the  Queres,  are  not  the  same  as 
those  attributed  by  the  Tehuas  or  the  Zunis. 

The  pictography  of  the  wild  tribes  did  not  equal  that  of  the 
Pueblos,  and  contained  no  such  symbolism;  nor  were  there  such 
deposits  in  the  graves,  as  are  found  near  the  pueblos.  Dr.  J. 
Walter  Fewkes  has  recently  made  discoveries  which  illustrate 
this  point.  These  discoveries  were  made  at  Hamolabi,  one  of 
the  ancient  Tusayan  villages.  The  following  is  his  description: 

The  great  collections  of  prehistoric  objects  which  were  taken  at 
Hamolabi,  came  from  the  necropolis,  or  burial  place,  which  is  most 
wonderful  in  its  revelation  of  the  character  of  ancient  life.  The 
cemeteiies  were  situated  ju<t  outside  of  the  town,  only  a  few  feet  from  the 
outer  wall.  Almost  every  grave  was  indicated  by  aflat  stone  slab,*  which 
stood  upright  or  lay  above  a  skeleton.  Some  of  these  stones  were  per 
forated  with  round,  oval,  or  square  holes.  The  habit  of  placing  mortuary 
votive  offerings  seems  to  have  been  almost  universal,  for  almost  every  grave 
excavated  contained  one  or  more  objects  of  pottery,  stone  implements,  cere 
monial  paraphernalia;  valuable  ornaments  were  left  on  the  bodies  of  the 
dead.  The  large  number  of  vessels  belonged  'o  the  red  and  black,  and 
black  and  white  varieties,!  identical  with  those  said  to  be  characteristic  of 
the  Cliff-Dwellers,  showing  that  the  ancient  Pueblo  villages  made  the  same 
kind  of  pottery,  and  adorned  it  in  the  same  wav. 

The  pictographic  dedorations  of  Hamolabi  pottery,  which  can  be 
identified,  are  few  in  number.  The  figures  of  birds  predominate;  in  one 
instance  was  a  figure  of  a  spider  in  a  food  basin,  it  had  the  four  pairs  of  legs, 
globular  body,  and  prominent  mandibles;  on  the  outer  rim  of  the  bowl  was 
a  figure  of  the  sun,  similar  to  that  made  on  the  floors  of  the  sacred  rooms, 
or  kivas,  in  the  celebration  of  ceremonies.  In  modern  mythology,  the 
spider  woman  is  associated  with  the  sun.  She  is  an  earth  goddess,  the  bride 
of  the  sun,  and  the  mother  of  the  twin  war  gods.  The  symbol  of  the  sun 
is  depicted  on  the  pottery;  also,  on  the  altar  screens  of  the  "  palulakonti  " 
or  serpent  sun  ceremony. 


•These  slabs  remind  us  of  the  graves  which  were  found  by  Mr.  Holmes  on  the  mesas,  near 
the  clifT-dw»llings  of  Montezuma  Canyon.  They  have  already  been  described. 

t  Black  and  white  ware  is  the  most  abundant  kind  among  the  cliff-houses,  though  it  is  not 
confined  to  them  This  indicates  that  the  occupation  of  cliff-dwellings  of  the  Mesa  Verde  and. 
ancient  pueblos  was  contemporaneous. 


384  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

A  second  ruin  was  discovered  three  miles  beyond  the  first.  It  was 
much  larger,  and  crowned  the  top  of  a  mesa  200  feet  high.  The  rooms  were 
well  marked,  and  the  remains  of  the  wooden  beams  were  still  present.  The 
graves  were  marked  with  the  same  rectangular  stone  slabs.  Food  bowls 
were  found,  ornamented  with  a  picture  of  a  human  being  with  flowers  and 
butterflies. 

The  ruins  on  Chevlon  Creek,  near  where  it  flows  into  the  Little  Colo 
rado,  fifteen  miles  from  Winslow,  presented  a  rectangular  wall,  with  rows 
of  rooms  apparently  enclosing  a  plaza.  Cemeteries  yielded  a  majority  of 
the  articles  collected.  The  burials  were  indicated  by  flat  stones,  some  up 
right,  but  mostly  horizontal.  Basket  plaques  were  buried  with  the  dead, 
some  of  them  painted  a  green  and  blue  color;  also,  stone  slabs  ornamented 
\\ith  triangular  figures,  which  resemble  those  on  the  walls  of  the  kivas  and 
the  cliff  houses  of  the  Mesa  Verde  and  those  which  are  painted  on  dados 
of  modern  houses,  though  reversed,  and  embroidered  on  wedding  blankets 
where  they  are  called  butterfly  symbols.  It  has  been  suggested  that  they 
are  rain  cloud  symbols.  An  axe  of  white  stone,  ornamented  with  a  simple 
incised  cross,  was  found,  and  several  anow  straightners;  one  in  the  form  of 
a  frog.  Metates,  or  grinding  stones,  in  the  graves,  commonly  inserted  over 
the  skeleton  of  a  woman,  indicated  the  sex  of  the  dead.  The  most  beauti 
ful  ornament  was  a  fetich  of  shell,  encrusted  with  turquoise,  inlaid  with 
rows  of  turquoises  nicely  fitted  together  with  the  form  of  a  frog.  This 
was  taken  from  the  breast  of  a  skeleton,  several  feet  below  the  surface, 
and.  as  an  example  of  mosaic  work,  is  unsurpassed.  A  few  specimens  of 
shell  carving,  cut  in  the  shape  of  a  frog  with  perforations  tor  eyes,  were 
found  in  the  Chevlon  ruins;  also,  many  shell  amulets,  bracelets,  finger  rings 
and  perforated  shells;  wood,  bone,  and  shell  encrusted  with  turquoise 
mosaics;  fragments  of  a  bow  and  arrow,  the  property  of  a  warrior  priest. 
The  pottery  from  this  ruin  has  many  resemblances  to  the  ancient  Zuni 
ruins,  but  the  symbolism  is  essentially  the  same  as  that  of  the  Tusayans, 
showing  that  there  was  a  closer  similarity  between  them  in  ancient  than  in 
modern  times.  Several  vessels  of  clay,  painted  and  fired,  were  made  in 
the  forms  of  animals  and  birds,  the  most  striking  had  the  form  of  a  macaw 
or  parrot,  made  in  a  conventional  way.  This  connects  the  clan  with  the 
south,  where  the  parrot  is  found.  One  naturally  recalls  the  intimate  asso 
ciation  of  the  bird  and  snake,  which  has  been  worked  out  in  so  clever  a  way 
in  the  Yucatan  ruins. 

The  ruins  at  Chaves  Pass  were  visited.  This  Pass  from  prehistoric 
times  was  one  of  the  few  available  passage-ways  over  the  Mogollon 
Mountains,  and  through  it  ran  an  old  Moki  trail,  reputed  to  have  been  used 
by  the  Hopi  traders  in  visiting  the  people  south  of  the  mountains.  Several 
hundred  skeletons  were  exhumed  and  a  copper  bell,  which  is  the  only 
specimen  of  metal  found.  This  bell  was  found  ten  feet  below  the  surface, 
with  a  human  skeleton.  It  is  identical  with  bells  found  in  graves  in  Salado 
Valley  at  Casa  Grande  and  Old  Mexican  ruins.  Its  form  is  identical  with 
those  made  and  used  by  Mexicans  and  Central  Americans  out  of  gold  and 
copper,  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  conquerors,  There  was  taken  from  the 
ruins  of  Chaves  Pass,  a  type  ot  ancient  pottery  which  has  never  been  found 
among  the  Moki  ruins.  It  is  decorated  with  black,  brown  or  red  lines,  with 
white  margin.  It  indicated  a  well-marked  difference  between  the  old  Hopi 
and  the  ancient  Patki  pottery.  The  striking  figure  of  a  bird  with  a  long 
projecting  beak  characteristic  of  many  masks  used  in  modern  Katcina 
dances,  also  the  figure  of  a  racoon,  which  was  a  mythical  animal  in  the 
Hopi  pantheon  are  found.  The  pottery  found  in  the  Chaves  Pass  was 
practically  identical  with  that  from  the  Colorado,  Cochiti,  and  Verde  Val 
ley,  showing  that  the  people  were  formerly  closely  related.  At  Walpi,  the 
old  men  say  that  their  ancestors  built  the  pueblos  of  the  Verde  Valley. 

III.     The  architecture  of  the  Pueblos  differed  from  that  of 

the  wild  tribes.    Any  one  can  realize  this,  who  will  compare  the 

terraced  pueblos  with  the  tepees  or  huts  of  the  hunter  Indians. 

,  The  former  are  generally  built   of   stone  and  arranged  either 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.        385 

around  the  courts  in  which  the  kivas  were  situated,  or  in  long 
lines,  with  passage-ways*  between  them,  and  usually  with  a  wall 
surrounding  them.  As  to  the  characteristics  which  are  shown  by 
the  pueblos,  we  may  notice  the  following  elements  :  1st,  the  walls ; 
2nd,  the  terraces;  3rd,  the  balconies  in  front  of  the  terraces;  4th, 
the  apartments  and  the  doors  into  them  ;  5th,  the  courts  which 
were  enclosed  by  the  walls ;  6th,  the  kivas  within  the  courts  ;  /th, 
the  gateways  through  the  walls  ;  8th,  the  walls  which  surrounded 
the  entire  village,  making  a  separate  enclosure  ;  pth,  the  inner 
rooms,  or  apartments,  above  the  terrace;  loth,  the  store-rooms 
below  the  terrace  ;  nth.  the  towers,  which  were  frequently  placed 
outside  of  the  pueblos  ;  I2th,  the  garden  plats  and  farms  near  the 
pueblos;  1 3th,  the  springs  and  sacred  wells;  I4th,  the  shrines, 
which  were  sometimes  placed  a  a  distance  on  the  hill  tops  ;  I5th, 
the  trails  and  stairways  which  led  up  to  the  mesas;  i6th,  the 
irrigating  canals.  All  of  these  elements  are  found  in  the  ruins 
of  the  ancient  pueblos,  showing  that  there  was  a  great  uniformity 
of  pueblo  architecture  everywhere.  What  is  more,  the  same  ele 
ments  are  found  in  the  cliff-dwellings. 

The  wild  tribes  differ  from  the  Pueblos,  and  among  them 
selves  as  to  the  manner  of  erecting  their  tents  or  tepees.  A 
Pima  house  is  round,  like  a  bee-hive;  four  posts  supporting  a 
rough  frame  of  boards  or  branches,  form  the  basis  of  this 
structure.  Long,  bent  poles  are  so  placed  as  to  meet  above  this 
rude  platform,  to  which  they  are  tied.  Hoops  encircle  the  bows, 
and  hold  them  laterally.  Over  this  skeleton,  earth  is  placed. 
Sometimes  a  layer  of  grass  or  brush  is  first  applied  to  the  frame. 
The  whole  is  nothing  else  but  one  of  the  well-known  "  dirt 
roofs  "  that  can  be  seen  in  any  part  of  New  Mexico,  with  the 
difference,  however,  that  the  dirt  roof  of  the  pueblo  rests  on  a 
wall  of  stones  or  mud  (adobe),  whereas  the  Pimas'  roof  rests  on 
the  ground  and  forms  a  compact  cupola. 

The  Navajoes  and  Apaches  build  their  tepees  or  wigwams  in 
conical  form.  They  insert  poles  into  the  ground  in  a  circular 
form  and  draw  them  in  to  the  top,  bind  them  together,  and  cover 

•In  the  village  of  Oraibi  the  passages  were  nearly  all  perfectly  straight.  The  houses  were 
arranged  in  parallel  rows.  In  Shumo-pavi  the  houses  were  arranged  about  a  hollow  squa.e, 
to  which  there  was  an  entrance  only  at  one  corner  The  terraces  sloped  toward  this  court. 
In  Mashongnavi  there  were  three  such  hollow  squares,  with  a  single  entrance  to  each,  the 
great  communistic  houses  being  arranged  la  parallel  rows,  with  transverse  rows  across  the 
end  of  each  court.  In  Pescado  and  in  Neutria,  which  are  old  villages,  the  houses  are  arranged 
about  a  large,  irregular  court,  and  form  an  eliptical  figure,  with  several  openings  through  the 
elipse  in  the  interior.  In  Neutria  the  village  is  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  with  a  block  of 
buildings  between  the  houses.  In  Kintiel  the  buildings  are  arranged  in  the  form  of  an  irregular 
circle;  the  court  is  in  the  centre,  which  is  drained  by  a  sink  in  the  mesa,  but  there  are  exca 
vations  in  the  court  which  are  designed  for  the  storing  of  water  In  »he  Zuni  village  there 
is  but  one  large  court.  All  of  the  buildings  are  arranged  around  this,  forming  great  blocks 
in  which  the  stories  rise  above  one  another,  the  highest  story  being  in  the  centre,  thus 
making  an  irregular  pyramid.  The  passsge-ways  between  the  buildings  are  long  and  narrow, 
and  always  diagonal.  The  pueblos  on  the  Rio  Grande  are  generally  compact  and  isolated, 
and  are  ont  in  the  open.  There  are  very  few  enclosures  or  courts  within  them. 

Zuni  has  been  built  ?t  a  point  having  no  special  advantage  for  defence;  convenience  to 
large  areas  of  tillable  soil  has  apparently  led  to  the  selection  of  the  site.  This  has  subjected 
it  in  part  to  the  same  influences  that  at  an  earlier  date  produced  the  carefully  walled  fortress 
pueblos  of  the  vclleys,  where  the  defensive  efficiency  was  dne  to  well-planned  and  constructed 
buildings. 


386 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


the  whole  with  a  skin ;  leaving  a  hole  at  the  top  for  the  escape  of 
the  smoke,  though  their  winter  houses  are  built  more  like  the 
dirt  houses  of  the  Pimas,  but  differ  from  them  in  that  the  door 
projects  something  like  a  dormer  window,  and  has  blankets  of 
different  colors  hanging  in  front.  The  Navajoes  have  the  singu 
lar  custom  of  painting  the  roof  of  their  sacred  tent  or  hut  with 
the  semblance  of  a  humanized  rainbow,  the  arch  covering  the 
top,  but  the  feet  and  legs  are  upon  one  side,  the  arms  and  head 
upon  the 
other,  near 
the  ground 
It  shows 
that  their 
myth- 


Conical  Tents  and  Walled  Pueblo.  ^ S ;•--., 

ology   and    religion   was    a 

nature  worship,  or  worship  of 

the   sky.     They  have  "no  such 

kivas  as  the  Pueblos   have,  and  do 

not  regard  the  fire  as  sacred,  or,  if  they* 

do,  they  have  no  such  custom  of  leaping 

over  it  as  the  Pueblos  have.     Their  sacred'  tent  is-  not  divided 

into   ledges,  and  has   no  such  thing  as  a  sipapuh,   or  place  of 

emergence.     The  cut  illustrates  the  points  mentioned  above. 

The  architectural  skill  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers  and  Pueblos  was 
exhibited  not  only  in  the  houses  which  they  built,  but  in  the 
contrivances  which  they  adopted  for  securing  a  subsistence  in 
the  midst  of  their  unfavorable  surroundings.  Among  these  con 
trivances  we  may  mention  the  terraces  which  were  built  on  the 
sides  of  the  cliffs,  and  which  were  used  as  garden-beds.  All  of 
the  explorers  have  spoken  of  these  with  admiration.  Mr. 
Nordenskjold  describes  the  terraces  in  Navajo  Canon.  He  says  : 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.       387 


A  little  south  of  Step  House,  the  talus  slope  was  divided  by  low  stone 
walls,  built,  one  above  the  other,  into  level  terraces,  evidently  designed  for 
garden  plats;  the  same  as  Bandelier  found  on  the  Gila,  which  resemble  the 
hill-side  terraces,  in  the  vine-producing  districts  of  southern  Europe. 

It  is  evident  that  when  the  stone  buildings  were  erected,  the  people 
ranked  higher  in  culture  than  the  nomadic  Indians.  They  had 
permanent  |||  domiciles  made  with  great  skill,  in  roughly-dressed 
blocks  laid  in  regular  courses.  In  architecture  they  had 
secured  great  CM  proficiency.  Other  remains  show  that  they  were 
agriculturists.  la  The  examination  of  objects  found  in  the  ruins,  wit 
ness  to  their  ^H  skill  in  the  art  of  pottery. 


Lieut.  Ives  speaks  of  the  terraces  and 


reservoirs  near  the  Moqui 
pueblos.     He  says: 

I    discovered,  with    a    spy 
glass,  two  of  the  Moquis  towns, 

4",/\v  l¥2HB^£*tfK^  "-v*"^'     eight  or  ten   miles  distant,  upon 

it    W 'llESdk  S^iaHr     the  summit  of  a  high  bluff  over- 

t  f*w^i&    "S^^K^^1^  thval!fy-   They  were 
T  *     m^  built  dose  to  the  edge  of  the  preci 

pice,  and,  being  the  same  color  as  the 
mesa,  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  dis 
tinguish  lem,  even  with  a  glass,  but  for  the  vertical  and  horizontal  lines  of 
the  walls  and  buildings.  The  outlines  of  the  closely-packed  structures 
looked,  in  the  distance,  like  the  towers  and  battlements  of  a  castle,  and 
their  commanding  position  enhanced  the  picturesque  effect.  When  the 
darkness  f'-ll,  camp  fires — probably  those  of  the  Moquis  herdsmen  —could 
be  seen  st  ittered  along  the  further  side  of  the  valley.  On  either  side 
the  bluffs  vere  cut  into  terraces,  and  laid  out  into  gardens,  which 
were  irriga  ed  from  an  upper  reservoir.  The  whole  reflected  great 
credit  upon  the  Moquis'  ingenuity  and  skill  in  the  department  of 
engineering.  The  walls  of  the  terraces  and  reservoirs  were  of  partly- 
dressed  stone,  well  and  strongly  built,  and  the  irrigating  pipes  conveniently 


388  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE.   . 

arranged.  The  little  gardens  were  neatly  laid  out.  The  walls  of  the  ter 
races  are  kept  in  good  condition  and  preservation.  The  stone  and  earth 
for  their  construction  they  carry  in  blankets  upon  their  shoulders  from  the 
.valley  below. 

The  most  remarkable  specimens  of  terraced  hills  are  those 
in  the  Sierra  Madre  in  Mexico.  The  following  is  the  description 
given  by  Mr.  Lumholtz: 

This  Sierra  Madre  region  is  very  rich  in  remains  of  a  long-ago-vanished 
race  of  people,  of  whom  history  as  yet  knows  nothing.  Deserted  pueblos, 
containing  square  stone  houses,  are  frequently  met  with.  They  are  gener 
ally  found  on  top  of  the  hills  and  mountains,  and  are  sometimes  surrounded 
by  fortifications  in  the  shape  of  stone  walls.  Isolated  houses,  made  of  stone 
and  clay,  and  plastered,  so  that  they  look  white  at  a  distance,  are  also  found, 
and  the  Mexicans  call  them  Casas  Blancas. 

The  most  interesting  remains  are,  however,  in  the  caves,  which  contain 
groups  of  houses,  sometimes  three  stories  high.  Trincheras,  or  stone  ter 
races,  are  built  across  nearly  every  little  valley — ten  to  twenty  in  number  in 
some  of  them — evidently  for  agricultural  purposes.  On  very  steep  moun 
tain  sides,  these  terraces  were  astonishing  structures,  fifteen,  and  even 
twenty,  feet  high,  and  of  great  solid  stones,  in  the  cyclopean  stvle  of  ma 
sonry. 

The  defensive  architecture  of  the  Pueblos  is  a  most  distinctive 
and  prominent  feature.  This,  some  of  the  recent  explorers  and 
those  who  are  connected  with  the  Ethnological  Bureau,  have 
minimized,  and  have  maintained  that  there  were  no  fortresses, 
but  they  are  inconsistent  with  themselves.  Mr.  Mindeleff  says  : 

Fortresses,  or  other  purely  defensive  structures,  form  a  type  which  is 
entirely  unknown  in  the  pueblo  region.  The  reason  is  simple:  military  art, 
as  a  distinct  art,  was  developed  in  a  stage  of  culture  higher  than  that 
attained  by  the  ancient  pueblo  builders.  It  is  true,  that  within  the  limits  of 
the  pueblo  region,  structures  are  found  which,  from  their  character,  and  the 
character  of  their  sites,  have  been  loosely  described  as  fortresses,  their 
describers  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  adaptability  of  these  structures 
to  defense  is  the  result  of  nature,  and  not  of  art.  Numerous  examples  are 
found  where  the  building  of  a  single  short  wall  would  double  the  defensive 
value  of  a  site,  but,  in  the  experience  of  the  writer,  the  ancient  builders 
have  seldom  made  even  that  slight  addition  to  the  natural  advantages  of 
the  site  they  occupied. 

The  first  desideratum  in  the  minds  of  the  old  pueblo  builders  in  choos 
ing  the  location  of  their  habitations,  was  nearness  to  some  area  of  tillable 
land.  This  land  was  generally  adjacent  to  the  site  of  the  village,  and  was 
almost  invariably  overlooked  by  it.  In  fact,  this  requirement  was  consid 
ered  of  far  more  importance  than  adaptability  to  defense,  for  the  latter  was 
often  sacrificed  to  the  former.  These  statements  are  true  even  of  the 
so-called  fortresses,  of  the  cavate  lodges,  of  the  cliff  ruins,  and  of  many  of 
the  large  village  ruins,  scattered  over  the  southwestern  portion  of  the  United 
States.  Among  the  ancient  pueblo  builders  there  was  no  military  art,  or 
rather,  the  military  art  was  in  its  infancy;  pur«ly  defensive  structures,  such 
as  fortresses,  were  unknown,  and  the  idea  of  defense  never  reached  any 
greater  development  than  the  selection  of  an  easily  defended  site  for  a  vil 
lage,  and  seldom  extended  to  the  artificial  improvement  of  the  site. 

This  is  utterly  in  disagreement  with  the  testimony  of  the 
Spanish  explorers.  The  following  is  the  description  given  by 
Castaneda.  He  says : 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.        389 


Certain  houses  are  used  as  fortresses;  they  are  higher  than  the  others 
and  set  up  above  them,  like  towers,  and  there  are  embrasures  and  loop 
holes  in  them  for  defending  the  roofs  and  different  stories,  because,  like  the 
other  villages,  they  do  not  have  streets,  and  the  flat  roofs  are  all  of  a  height 

and  are  used  in  common.  The 
roofs  have  to  be  reached  first, 
and  those  upper  houses  are 
the  means  of  defending  them. 
It  began  to  snow  on  us  there, 
and  the  force  took  refuge 
under  the  wings  of  the  vil 
lage,  which  extend  out  like 
balconies,  with  wooden  pillars 
beneath,  because  they  gener 
ally  use  ladders  to  go  up  to 
those  balconies,  since  they  do 
not  have  any  doors  below. 

The  following  is  his 
description  of  Pecos,  or 
Cicuye,  the  village  which 
the  Comanches,  (a  wild 
tribe), had  besieged,but  had 
been  unable  to  capture  on 
account  of  its  strength: 


TWIN   TOWER    IN    RUIN    CANYON. 


Cicuye  is  a  village  of  nearly  fi.ve;hundred'warriors,  who  are  feared 
throughout  that  country.  It  is  square,  situated  on  a  rock,  with  a  large  court 
or  yard  in  the  middle,  con- 
tainingthe  estufas.  The  houses 
are  all  alike,  four  stories  high. 
One  can  go  over  the  top  of  the 
whole  village  without  there 
being  a  street  to  hinder. 
There  are  corridors  going  all 
around  it  at  the  first  two 
stories,  by  which  one  can  go 
around  the  whole  village. 
These  are  like  outside  bal 
conies,  and  they  are  unable  to 
protect  themselves  under 
these.  The  houses  do  not 
have  doors  below,  but  they  use 
Udders,  which  can  be  lifted 
up  like  drawbridges,  and  so 
go  up  to  the  corridors,  which 
are  on  the  inside  of  the  vil 
lage.  As  the  doors  of  the 
bouses  open  on  the  corridor 
of  that  story,  the  corndor 
serves  as  a  street.  The  houses 
that  open  on  the  plain  are  right 
back  of  those  that  open  on  the 
court,  and  in  time  of  war  thev 
sro  through  those  behind  them. 

The  village  is  enclosed  by  a  SQUARE  TOWER  IN  RUIN  CANYON. 

low  wall  of  stone.     There  is  a 

spring  of  water  inside,  which  they  are  able  to  divert.  The  people  of  this 
village  boast  that  no  one  has  been  able  to  conquer  them,  and  that  they  con 
quer  whatever  villages  they  wish. 


390 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


This  quotation  shows  that  the  Pueblos  were  at  this  time  beset 
by  the  wild  tribes,  and  were  obliged  to  dwell  in  fortified  villages. 
The  same  is  proved  by  the  cliff  dwellings  farther  north,  especi 
ally  by  those  which  have  been  recently  discovered  in  Ruin 
Canon,  and  are  described  in  Popular  Science  for  April,  1899,  by 
Mr.  W,  K.  Moorehead.  Cuts  illustrating  them  have  been  kindly 
loaned  us,  and  are  furnished  here.  The  following  description  is  his  : 

The  canyon  that  contains  the  ruins  does  not  average  more  than  seventy 
feet  in  depth  It  is  not  very  wide,  yet  a  wilder  place  c;.n  scarcely  be 
imagined:  great  crags  of  sandstone  jut  out  on  either  side;  masses  of  rock 
have  tumbled  into  the  gorge  below;  a  dense  growth  of  sage  bush  covers 
the  bottom;  while  the  topmost  ledges  hang  for  many  yards  over  the  cliff, 
forming  natural  caves.  The  inhabitants  took  advantage  of  the  inaccessible 
nature  of  the  gorge,  and  have  built  four  kinds  of  structures:  First,  large 
towers,  with  very  thick  walls,  placed  upon  commanding  positions;  second, 
small  pueblos,  built  so  as  to  be  protected  by  the  towers;  third,  cave  dwell 
ings  or  cave-villages,  which  consisted  of  one  or  more  walls  enclosing  a 


MAP    OF    RUIN    CANYON. 

natural  cavern  in  the  rock;  fourth,  cave-shelters  or  hollow  castles,  the 
boulders  forming  the  inner  walls  and  roof  of  the  habitation;  while  circular 
walls  were  built  on  the  exposed  side,  thus  making  within  the  hollow  two  or 
three  rooms  resembling  caves.  One  of  the  boulders  has  the  remains  of  a 
tower  on  top. 

The  first  ruin  in  sight,  is  a  large  tower,  or  two  towers,  named  "  The 
Twins,"  built  on  large,  oblong,  sandstone  boulders.  One  (A)  is  sixteen  feet 
high,  and  nineteen  fee*  across;  one  side  square,  the  other  rounded.  The 
rock  upon  which  it  stands  is  twenty-four  feet  high,  and  forty-eight  feet  in 
length.  There  are  port-holes,  three  or  four  inches  in  diameter,  on  all  sides. 
There  are  four  rooms  in  the  tower  upon  the  ground  floor.  The  other  tower  (B) 
is  twenty-one  feet  in  height,  twenty-one  feet  in  diameter,  and  the  walls 
fourteen  inches  in  thickness;  the  rock  upon  which  it  stands  is  thirty-four 
feet  in  height,  separated  from  the  cliff  by  a  fissure  eight  feet  in  width,  it  is 
divided  into  six  rooms  upon  the  ground  floor.  There  are  numerous  port-holes 
in  the  tower.  Underneath  the  twin  towers  was  a  cavern,  fourteen  feet  in 
width  and  five  feet  high,  in  which  were  two  small  cave-dwellings.  Stronger 
habitations  could  scarcely  have  been  constructed,.  There  was  but  one  en 
trance  to  each  room.  The  entrances  to  the  towers  (A  and  B)  ars  toward  the 
canyon,  and  necessitated  the  use  of  small  ladders,  which  the  occupants  could 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.        391 

draw  in,  while  the  enemies  would  be  obliged  to  scale  the  cliff.  The  rafters 
in  all  the  towers  are  in  the  last  stages  of  decay.  The  masunry  is  excellent, 
sandstone  averaging  14x5x4  inches  has  been  used  in  the  construction. 

When  one  considers  that  all  these  thousands  of  blocks  were  hewn  out 
by  stone  tools,  fashioned  into  buildings  by  primitive  masons,  that  arches, 
doorways,  windows,  and  port-holes  were  accurately,  neatly,  and  substanti 
ally  constructed,  one  must  a.ccord  the  builders  a  degree  of  architectural 
skill  reached  only  in  other  lands  by  people  who  had  the  use  of  metal. 

Hollow  Boulder  (c)  stands  in  the  valley  at  the  junction  of  the  upper  can- 
vons.  It  is  thirty-nine  feet  long,  and  twenty  feet  high.*  Beneath  the 
boulder  is  a  hollow  cave,  which  is  walled  arid  divided  into  two  rooms. 
There  are  the  ruins  of  a  tower  on  top  of  it.  A  spuare  tower  (n)  stands 
upon'the  topmost  ledge,  where  the  canyon  forks.  The  entrance  faces  the 
canyon.  There  are  no  windows,  but  twenty  port  holes  in  the  walls.  The 
entrance  is  three  or  four  feet  from  the  edge  of  the  canyon.  It  commands 
the  unprotected  boulder,  shrine,  or  dwelling  below.  The  square  tower  (G) 
is  the  tallest  tower  standing.  It  was  built  upon  a  boulder  ten  feet  high, 


A    MASHONGNAVI    WOMAN.  A    MASHONGNAVI    GIRL. 

sixteen  feet  wide,  and  twenty  feet  long.  It  originally  had  four  stories,  three 
of  which  are  now  standing.  There  are  no  port-holes  in  the  lower  story,  a 
number  in  the  second,  and  very  many  in  the  third.  The  fourth  story  com 
mands  the  plain  above.  The  doorway  is  T  shaped.  The  tower  tapers  at 
the  top.  It  was  designed  for  defence.  Should  the  enemv  succeed  in  elud 
ing  the  other  towers,  they  would  be  unable  to  pass  this  in  safety.  It  will 
be  seen  from  the  map  that  the  ruins  are  all  bunched  together  at  the  head 
of  the  canyon  It  seems  to  have  been  a  preferred  spot  for  dwellings,  and, 
consequently,  a  very  vital  point  to  be  defended.  Here  were  two  caves, 
marked  K  and  j  on  the  map,  tower  G  splendidly  commands  both  of  these. 
One  of  these  was  150  feet  in  length,  and  twenty  feeet  in  height,  and  con 
tained  a  large  compartment  dwelling  of  nine  rooms,  which  covered  an 
extent  of  about  sixty  feet  in  length,  fourteen  feet  in  height,  and  sixteen  feet 
in  depth.  Upon  the  summit  mesa,  extending  back  from  the  edge  is  a  good- 
s'zed  pueblo  in  ruins,  protected  by  two  buildings  which  have  numer 
port  holes.t 


«  This  boulder  has  been  calkd  a  shrine,  and  is  described  on  page  3^0. 

1  J 


One  is 


Mr    Louis  \V    Gunckel  has  spoken  of  several  other    cliff-villages   in    the    sa 
s  called  Giants'  Cave;  another,  Monarch  Cave;  another  Hawk's  Isest  Cove 


me    region. 


392 


PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 


The  dwellings  L,  M  and  N  are  the  most  important  ruins  in  the  entire 
canyon,  and  show  the  best  architectural  skill.  They  are  situated  directly 
upon  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  One  of  these  is  circular  toward  the  east.  There 
are  port-holes  pointing  directly  downward,  so  that  a  man  standing  at  the 
base  could  be  shot  by  those  above.  Tower  p  is  on  the  point  where  the 
canyon  divides.  It  stands  on  a  high  boulder  and  commands  an  important 
position.  Tower  o  stands  on  a  high  boulder  about  half-way  down  the  side 
of  the  canyon.  R  is  a  good-sized  compartment  house,  having  six  rooms, 
two  stories  in  height,  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  Castle  u  is  a  strong  com- 
partmeat  house,  built  upon  a  huge  boulder,  separated  from  the  cliff  by  a 
fissure  thirty  feet  in  width,  and  twenty-five  feet  deep.* 

The  contest  between  the  wild  tribes  and  the  Pueblos  is  also 
shown  by  the  ruined  hill  top  forts,  on  the  Rio  Verde.  These 
have  been  described  by  Dr.  J.  W  Fewkes,  as  follows: 

These  fortified  hill-tops  are  abundant  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Red 

Rocks.  One  of  the 
best  examples,  is  a 
fortification  which 
crowns  the  summit 
of  a  mesa  at  Oak 
Creek.  Here  the 
whole  top,  which  is 
level,  is  surrounded 
by  a  wall  at  its  edge. 
The  ascent  is  impos 
sible,  save  at  one 
point  where  the  trail 
is  defended  by  a  cir 
cular  bastion.  I  be 
lieve  that  these 
structures  are  forti 
fied  retreats,  similar 
to  the  utncherias  of 
Sonora,  and  those  of 
the  Sierra  Madre 
and  the  Magdalena 
Valley. 

The  defenses  of 
this  region  are 
very  interesting 
on  account  of 
their  proximity  to 
the  boulder  sites, 
pueblos,  hill  top- 
,  forts,  and  other 
structures,  and 
because  they  are 
situated  outside  of 
the  region  which 
was  strictly  Pueblo  territory.  A  north  and  south  line,  running 
a  little  west  of  the  Tusayan  villages,  would  separate  the  inhabited 
pueblos — the  most  of  which  are  still  built  after  the  fashion  of  a 


NAVAJO    PRIEST. 


.These  various  towers,  A,  B,  D,  P  and  O,  along  with  the  boulder  C,  and  the  tower  U, 
are  so  situated  as  to  prevent  an  enemy  from  passing  up  the  canyon  to  the  village,  os  clus 
ter  of  buildings,  M,  L,  N,  K,  G,  H  and  I,  at  the  end  of  the  canyon.  These  show  great 
strategic  skill  on  the  part  of  the  Cliff-Dwellers. 


THE  CLIFF-DWELLERS  AND  THE  WILD  TRIBES.        393 


fortress — from  the  ancient  ruins  on  the  Rio  Verde.  The  hill 
top-forts  show  that  even  this  region  was  invaded  by  the  wild 
tribes,  and  was  abandoned  because  of  their  continued  presence 

IV.  The  contrast  between  the  Pueblos  and  the  wild  tribes  is 
manifest  not  onlyyin  their  works  and  relics,  but  especially  in  their 
dress  and  physical  appearance.  We  shall,  therefore,  call  atten 
tion  to  them. 

The  wild  tribes  remain  in  about  the  same  condition  that  they 
were  before  the  time  of  the  Discovery,  and  are  separated  from 
the  Pueblos  by  two  or  three  periods  of  progress.  Their  clothing 
shows  the  difference  between  them.  The  wild  tribes  generally 
went  nearly  naked,  but  the  Pueblos  were  thoroughly  clothed, 
except  when  engaged  in  their  religious  ceremonies. 

Imitation  is  a  faculty  which  is  common  with  all  Indian 
tribes,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  wild  tribes 
and  Pueblos  alike  bor 
rowed  many  customs  and 
forms  of  art  from  those 
who  were  at  a  distance. 
Still  the  modern  Pueblos 
have  passed  from  the  age 
of  stone  into  the  age  of 
iron,  without  the  use  of 
copper  or  bronze;  but 
the  antiquated  plough, 
the  two-wheeled  cart,  the 
clumsy  iron-ox,  the  im 
perfect  saw  are  now  found 
among  them.  In  place  of 
the  wooden  stick,  they 
use  the  hoe  in  planting. 
They  also  use  the  chisel 
and  auger  in  place  of  the 
fire  -  drill.  They  raise 
wheat,  barley,  melons, 
apples,  pears,  peaches, 
and  grapes;  own  cattle, 
sheep,  domestic  dogs  and 
cats.  They  use  wool  for 
their  garments,  and  use 
the  old  musket,  powder 
and  lead  instead  of  the 

bow-and-arrow;  but  they  are  still  in  a  state  of  transition  from 
stone  to  metal.  Their  pottery  is  not  as  elaborate  and  as  full  of 
symbolism  as  centuries  ago.  It  contains  figures  and  ornaments, 
which  are  evidently  borrowed  from  the  white  man,  mingled  with 
others  which  were  inherited  from  their  fathers. 


APACHE  RUNNERS. 


394  PRIMITIVE  ARCHITECTURE. 

The  cuts  show  the  contrast  between  the  Indian  tribes.  In  one 
group  we  have  a  Sioux  warrior,  a  Navajo,  and  a  Ute  dressed  in 
modern  costumes,  showing  the  effect  of  contact  with  the  whites; 
but  the  spears  and  arrows  show  their  original  weapons.  In 
another  case,  the  Pueblo  woman  is  dressed  in  modern  costume, 
but  she  shows  more  taste  and  neatness  of  apparel.  The  usual 
custom  or  style  of  wearing  the  hair  is  shown  in  the  picture  of 
the  girl.  The  picture  of  the  Apache  runners  shows  the  form  of 
the  hunter  Indian,  as  compared  with  the  Pueblos. 

The  wild  tribes  differed  among  themselves;  but  the  Pueblos 
were  everywhere  the  same. .  The  Navajoes  cultivated  by  irriga 
tion  and  lived  in  log-cabins,  while  their  cousins,  the  Apaches, 
moved  to  and  fro,  subsisting  on  the  chase,  and  on  murder  and 
rapine.  The  Yumas  in  Central  Chihuahua  were  village  Indians; 
whereas  those  of  New  Mexico  lived  in  a  condition  little  better 
than  that  of  the  tribes  of  the  Plain.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
tribes  on  the  Rio  Grande  irrigated  their  lands,  while  the  tribes  on 
the  so  called  "  Medano  " — those  who  inhabited  the  village  of 
Tabira  and  its  neighboring  settlements,  who  were  strictly 
Pueblos  —  depended  upon  the  annual  precipitation  for  their 
crops,  and  upon  tanks  for  their  drinking  water. 

Many  of  the  Apaches  dress  in  skins,  or  with  a  blanket  around 
the  waist,  the  remainder  being  left  completely  nude  They  paint 
their  faces  or  bodies  with  lines  of  black  and  white,  which  are 
symbolic  of  the  nature  powers.  They  are  tall  and  straight, 
usually  with  black  eyes.  Their  hair  is  coarse  and  black.  Their 
dances  are  such  as  were  common  in  prehistoric  times;  they  still 
continue  the  scalp  dance,  and  occasionally  the  deer-dance,  in 
which  the  performer  wears  a  deer  mask  with  its  antlers  and  does 
the  jumping  and  high-stepping,  imitating  the  motions  of  the  deer. 
Some  of  them  live  in  caves,  and  scarcely  plant  or  raise  anything, 
but  subsist  mainly  by  hunting.  They  have  a  conception  of 
the  four  cardinal  points  as  mystic  regions,  and  a  folk  lore  which 
differs  entirely  from  that  of  the  Pueblos.  Their  burial  customs 
differ.  The  dead  body  is  neither  burned  nor  entombed.  It  is 
enclosed  by  a  rude  hut  or  bower  built  of  rubble  or  stone,  the 
weapons  placed  beside  the  body.  Pottery  vessels  are  perforated 
or  broken — "  killed,"  as  the  saying  is.  Ornaments,  trinkets, 
and  plumes  are  added  to  the  other  articles  that  shall  accompany 
the  departed  one  to  the  happy  hunting  ground. 


INDEX. 


Abiquiu,  67. 

Abo,  69. 

Acotna,  50,  71,  170,  210. 

Acowitz  Canyon,  98,  102,  241. 

Acuco.  50,  170. 

Ageof  Cliff  Dwellers,  15.  24,  189,  353. 

Agriculture,  317;  Agricultural  Ditch, 

360;     Tools,   329;    Settlement, 

206;  Village,  182. 
Air  Continent,  0. 
Alameda,  69. 
Alvarado,  49,  50. 
Ancient    Graves,    188;     Wall,     188; 

Pueblos,  38,  169,  184. 
Animas  Canyon,  116,  176,  194,  198. 
Antelopes,  190. 
Apaches,  38,  70.  r3i,  150. 
Appalachians  6. 
Arapahoes,  — . 

Architecture  of  Pueblos,  149. 
Arizona,  5,  21,  37,  54,  68,  82,  116,  122, 

190. 

Arrow  Heads,  304,  308. 
Athapascans,  38,  70. 
A\va-tubi,  154. 
Axes,  306. 

Aztec  Spring,  133,  182,  187. 
Aztecs,  150,  194. 

Bad  Lands,  13. 
Balconies,  241. 
Bandelier,  22,  25,  53,  55,  73,  213,  214, 

228,  302. 

Barber,  E.  A.,  187,  294,  297,  304. 
Bartlett,  A.  F.,  55,  320. 
Baskets,  330,  331. 
Battle  Rock,  185,  187. 
Beardsall,  Dr.  J.  P.,  73,  97. 
Bell,  A.  H.,  211. 
Bernalillo,  65. 

Bickford,  F.  T.,  73,  79,  238,  299. 
Birnie,  Lieut.  Rogers,  194. 
Black  Tower,  84,  187. 
Bola-Throwers,  190. 
Bonito  Cave,  19. 
Boulder  Sites,  194,  361,  371. 
Bourke,  Capt.,  250. 
Bowls,  197,  312,  315. 
Bow  and  Arrow,  311. 
Brackenridge,  2il,  320. 
Bronze  Age,  19. 

Cabeca  de  Vaca.  47,  51. 
Caches,  96,  123,  125,  132,  327. 


Cacique,  72,  75,  232. 

California,  42,  52,  74. 

California  Indians,  220. 

Canadian  River,  47,  54. 

Canals,  58,  76,  157.  368. 

Canyon  de  Chelly,  22,  90,  206,  282, 
283,  284,  299. 

Canyon  del  Muerto,  41,  283,  324,  325. 

Cartier,  Jacques,  114. 

Casa  Grandes,  56,  177,  301. 

Casas  Grandes,  56  211,  224,  227,  229. 

Casa  Blanca,  56,  130,283,  284. 

Castaneda,  64,  17^362. 

Castles.  230,  320. 

Cave  Houses,  183;  Fortress,  209;  Vil 
lage,  210;  Valley,  132;  Dwell 
ings,  17,  18,22,  24,  120,  128,  183, 
209,  282,  300,  328. 

Cavate  Houses,  24,  170,  175,  194. 

Central  America,  18,  163. 

Ceremonies,  159,  250. 

Charms,  54,  154. 

Chapin,  F.  H.,  73,  84,  97,  108,  252,  298, 

Chaco,  70, 79, 86,  1 13, 165,  235,  237,  285. 

Chichilticali,  48,  51,  55,  170. 

Chihuahua,  224. 

Chimneys,  326. 

Chiquito,  153,  172. 

Chetro-kettle,  239. 

Church,  69,  166. 

Cias,  53,  62. 

Cibola,  47,  49,  62,  170. 

Cicuye,  51,  62,  170. 

Circular  Structures,  185,  326. 

Cists,  328. 

Cliff  on  the  Mancos,  94;  House,  82, 
126,  194,  205;  Canyon,  98,  108, 
241;  Fortress.  203, 219;  Village, 
129, 130,318;  Palace,  94,97,  100, 
101,  105.110,279,281;  Outlook, 
164,  205;  Town,  181. 

Cochiti,  53,  62,  69,  172. 

Coiled  Ware,  315 

Colorado,  5,  41,  46,  64,68.  82,  112. 

Colorado  River,  38,  23,  83,  116,  320. 

Cordilleras,  6,  52. 

Cordova,  66. 

Coronado,  47,  48,  65,  71,  76,  212,  320. 

Comanches,  70,  167. 

Corn-cobs,  128,  145. 

Corn-maids,  336. 

Cotton  Cloth,  144,  315,  329. 

Cope,  Prof.  E.  D.,  20,  73. 

Culiacan,  47,  48. 


396 


INDEX. 


Gushing,  F.  H.,  55,  58,  73,  120,  151, 
218,  252,  301. 

Ball,  W.  H.,  121. 

Dana,  Prof.,  6. 

Dance  Rock,  154. 

Davis,  W.  H.,62. 

Dawson,  ig,  114. 

Decorated  Walls,  281. 

Diego,  67. 

Discovery  of  High  House,  82,  87,90. 

Discovery  of  Pueblos,  47. 

Ditch,  360. 

Domestic  Life,  269. 

Doors,  243,  278    286. 

Dress,  144.] 

Dutton,  C.  E.,  2. 

Eagle  People,  154. 

Early  Explorers,  21. 

Echo  Cave,  15,  128. 

Emblems,  249,  357. 

Emory,  Lieut.,  211. 

Eocene,  21. 

Epsom  Creek,  300. 

Eskimo  Houses,  17. 

Estufas,  109,  141,  182,  186,   199,  206, 

234,  251. 
Espejo,  66,  70. 
Ethnological  Bureau,  60. 
Europe,  15. 

Fetiches,  217. 

Fewkes,  J.  W.,  73,  151,  179,  301,  357. 

Fireplace,  91,  124,  376. 

Flagstaff,  131,  205,  208. 

Flint,  Dr.  E.,  122. 

Floors,  92,  108,  191,  198,  234. 

Food  Supply,  145,  292. 

Foot  trail,  3. 

Fortresses,  104,  131,  203,  207,  212,  221, 

228,  232,  240,  262. 
Fortified    Pueblos,   79,   80,    164,  219, 

221,  231,  234. 

Garden  Plats,  157,  196,  360,  371. 

Gateway,  73,  227,  233. 

Geology,  12,  63 

Gila.  49,  54,  176,  181,  190. 

Grand  Canyon,  6,  64,  1 17,  324. 

Great  Plateau,  6,  82,  119. 

Great  Houses,  221,  227,  235,  242,  244. 

Gregg,  J.  W/s  72,  75,  76. 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  42. 

Gulf  of  California.  42,  48. 

Gunckel,  Lewis  W.,  97,  194,  197. 

Hano,  38. 

Havden's  Survey,  297. 

Hearths,  108. 

Henry  Mountains,  .83. 

High-Houses,  81,  87,  154. 

Higgins,  C.  A.,  210,  215. 


History  of  the  Pueblos,  149. 

Hodge,  F.  W.,  172. 

Hoffman,  Dr.  W.  P.,  219,  332. 

Hogan,  376. 

Hollow  Boulder,  365. 

Holmes,  W.  H.,  85,  90,  97,  116,  123. 

1 86,  190,  192,  312. 
Home  Village,  205, 
Horn  People,  152. 
House  Interiors,  91,  103,  126,  137,146, 

168,  169,  176,  1 80,  252,  273,  279, 

281,  285,  292,  332;  376, 
Houses  of  Indians,  221. 
Hovenweep,  116,  273. 
Human  Remains,  146,  245. 
Humboldt  River,  116. 
Hungo-Pavis,  239. 

Indians,  163,  292,  361. 

Indian  Corn,  286. 

Indian  Tribes,  76. 

Irrigating  Ditcnes,  157,  196,  230,  360, 

37i. 

Isleta,  71. 
Isolated  Cliff,  208,  212. 

Jackson,  W.  H.,  23,  84,  86,  127,  129. 
Jamez,  53,  170,  172. 
Jugs,  314. 

Kaibab,  45. 

Kanab,  5,  46. 

Kearns  Canyon,  21 1. 

Kitchen  Middens,  122. 

Kiva,  3,  159,  161,  165,  195,  270,  276. 

Ladders,  171,  292,  364. 
Laguna,  71,  170,  210. 
Lava  Blocks,  118,  176. 
Ledges,  94,  130,  193,  251,  275. 
Limestone  Creek,  371. 
Lookout,  102. 
Long  House,  108,  no. 
Loop-hole  Fort,  104,  108. 
Loop-hole,  127. 
Lumholtz,  Carl,  333. 
Lummis,  C.  F.,  68,  73,  215. 

Mancos  Canyon,  14,  93,98,  no,  126, 
I33»  MS-  286,  301,  308. 

Maize,  145,  229. 

Map  of  Puenlo  Tribes,  377. 

Map  of  Ruin  Canyon,  364. 

Marshall  Pass,  55. 

Mashongnavi,  41,  160,  172,  174,  365. 

Masonry,  79.  88,  240. 

Matthews,  Washington,  55,  I5r,  247, 
252. 

McElrno  Canyon,  88,  13},  182,  184, 
1 86,  193. 

Meanis,  Dr.  E.  A.,  219,  300,  366. 

Mesa,  4,  89,  90,  213. 

Mesa  Verde,  82,  107,  133. 


INDEX. 


397 


Mendoza,'65,  292. 

Metate,  169,  304,  306. 

Mexico,  18,  72,  292. 

Migrations,  149,  154. 

Miller,  M.  L,  76. 

Mindeliff,  Cosmos,  108,  164,  198,  204, 

328,  307. 

Modern  Ware,  315,  378. 
Mogares  293. 

Mogollon  Escarpment,  41,  64. 
Montezuma,  246. 
Montezuma   Canyon,    127,    133,    163 

188, 193;  Castle.  219, 332;  Wells, 

219,  301. 

Monarch's  Cave,  203.  294. 
Monumental  Canyon,  325. 
Moorehead,  W.  K.,  364. 
Moquis,  64,  66,  69,  89,  170,  329,  361. 
Morgan,  L.  H.,  54,  76,  163,  196. 
Mortar,  307. 
Mount  Taylor,  215. 
Mug  House,  306. 
Mummv  Cave,  282. 
Mural  Decorations,  140. 
Myths,  151,  157. 

Nadaillac,  122. 

Nahua,  ito. 

Navajos,  38,  41,  54-  '5°.  152>  1S4,  i57> 

293  361,  366,  368. 
Nevvberry,  Prof.  J.  H.,  64,  211. 
New   Mexico,  47,    52,   54,   56,  62,  66, 

116,  133,  162,  164,  194. 
Nevada,  52,  119. 
North  America,  38. 
Northwest  Coast,  19. 
Nordenksjold    105,  107,  200,  252,  283, 

329- 

Oraibi,  38,  162,  246. 
Obsidian,  309. 
Ojo-Caliente,  26. 
Outlooks,  164,  205. 

Papagoes,  293. 

Park  Mountains,  41. 

Passageways,  91,  92,  225. 

Pansagunt    5. 

Pecos,  50,  53",  54,  62,  71,  75,  233, 

Periods,  19,  21. 

Petrie,  F.  W.,  69. 

Pictographs,  16,  190. 

Pictures,  53. 

Piers,  2^2/ 

Pike's  Peak,  115. 

Pimas,  173,  293,  320. 

Pink  Cliff,  5 

Pintado,  79,  238. 

Plastered  Pillars,  279. 

Plateau  Province,  38,  41,  42,  63. 

Portrero,  21,  22. 

Port-hole  ,  127,  274,  365. 

Pottery,  144, 146,  197,  3I2>  3*3.  378,  379. 


Powell,  Major  J.  W.,  25,  117,  205,  321. 
Pueblo  Aichitecture,  168,  363. 
Pueblos,  i,  63,  79,  149,  151,  162,  166, 

175,  195,  196,  204,  208,  232,  237, 

241,  270,  311,  318. 
Pueblo  Bonito,  80,  239;  Pueblo  Chetro- 

Kettle,8o;  Pueblo  History,  24, 

152-176;    Pueblo    Hungo-Pavi, 

80;    Pueblo    de    Penasca,   80; 

Pueblo    Wejegi,    80;     Pueblo 

Territory,  21,  22. 
Pueblo  Woman,  140,  315,  365. 
Pueblo  Tribes,  71,  72,  89,    114,    149 

203,  206,  221,  238,  241,  247. 
Puerco,  54,  62. 
Putnam.  F.  W..  121. 
Pyramid  Lake,  116. 

Queres,  22,  5i:  72,  246, 

1^  170. 
,  51,  65,  75,  213. 


Rain  God,  69. 

Red  Rocks,  165,  178. 

Religious  Life,  245. 

Relics,  293.    • 

Reservoir,  177,  285,  340,  359. 

Rio  Grande,  118,  119,  ill,  211,  368. 

Rio  La  Plata,  133. 

Rio  Verde,  179,  211,  367. 

Rock  Markings,  16,  148,  190. 

Rocky  Mountains,  131. 

Rock  Shelter,  197. 

Roofs,  108,  194,200,  234,  243,  245,  292. 

Rooms,  76,  79,  87,  106,  109,  126,  180,  198 

Ropes,  137. 

Round   Room,  90. 

Royal  Gorge,  96. 

Ruins,  101,  176,  229,  231,  239. 

Ruined   House,  285. 

Ruined    Pueblo,  73,  80,  81,  183,  186, 

213,  235. 
Ruined    lower,  89,  91,  109,   184,  276, 

363- 

Ruined  Village,  182,  368. 
Ruined  Wall,  188,  .193. 

Salado,  58,  218,  331. 

San  Carlos,  217. 

San  Juan,  20,  54,  122,  124,   128,  273, 

297.  323- 
Sandals,  144. 
Sandal  Cliff  House,  203. 
San  Felipe,  62,  71,  172. 
San  Mateo,  239. 
San  Francisco  Mountain,  37,  38,  203, 

209,  212. 

Santa  Domingo,  62,  154,  172. 
Snnta  Claca,  71,  208. 
S;»nta  Cruz,  66 
Santa  Fe,  53,  62,  69,  118. 
Scrapero,  306. 
Scenery,  15,  16,  96,  97,  99,  100,  203. 


398 


INDEX. 


Shells,  308. 

Shrine,  330. 

Shoshones,  172,  321. 

Shufinne,  26. 

Shumopavi,  38,  161,  172. 

Shupolavi,  38,  161,  172. 

Sichumavi,  38. 

Sierra  Marl  re,  38,  132. 

Simpson,  General  J.  H.,  61,  195. 

Sioux,  316. 

Sixteen  Windowed  House,  88,  223. 

Socorro,  62. 

Solitary  House,  88,  223. 

Sonora,   47,    169,    171,    172,    180,   211, 

229,  230,  317. 
South  America,  57. 
Snake  Dance,  171,  251.  336. 
Spaniards,  48,  52,  71,  75,  213,  245. 
Spanish  Explorations,  55-50. 
Spring  House,  315. 
Springs,  72,  176,  267. 
Spruce  Tree  House,  i  6,  280. 
.Square  Tower,  95,  107. 
Squash  Village,  154. 
Stairways,  49,  285. 
Stephens,  A.  M.,  151. 
Stevenson,  J.  E.,  297,  30;,  325. 
Step  House,  315. 
Stone  Pier,  103. 
Storage  Cists,  132,  328. 
Stone  Axes,  108,  294,  306. 
Streets,  75,  176,  igo. 
Suastika,  262. 
Symbols,  262,  264. 

Tabira,  166. 

Table  Mountain,  116. 

Tanks,  135. 

Taos,  75/76,  77,  170. 

Terraces  107,  170,  231,  284,  361, 

Tewan  Plateau,  41,  1 1 8. 

Textile  Fabrics,  107,  147    173,  304. 

Thunder  Mountain,  214. 

Tiguex,  50,  53,  170. 

Tillable  Lands,  230,  366. 


Toltec  Gorge,  98. 

Toadstool  Shrine,  331. 

Towers,  17,   18,  19,  20,  84,  88,  91,  94, 

109,  in,  125,  140,  183,  216,  266, 

284,  364. 
Trails,  158,  204. 
Traditions,  167,  248. 
Tusayan,  38,  154,  158,  162,  171. 
Turquoise,  165,  310,  330. 
Tutehaco,  170. 

Utah,  53,  85,  221,  301,  329. 
Utes,  42,  45,  136,  154,  157,    197,  203, 
293,  299. 

Vases,  302,  312,  313. 

V'ermillion  Cliffs,  45. 

Verde,  360 

Villages,  18,  49,  55,  75,  113,  135,  153, 

157,  161,  164,  189,  207,  214,  221, 

230,  276,  333. 

Walnut  Cany<  n,  205. 
Walled  Town,  224. 
Walls,  23,  88,  125,   139,  152,  157,  164, 
178,  181,  1 88,  193,  226,  235,  285. 
Walpi,  154,  157,  158,  337,  338. 
Wetherilj,  A.,  99,  135,  141,  143. 
Whipple,  Lieut.,  73,  319. 
White  House,  130,  284,  357. 
Windows,  75,  138,  278,  286. 
Wooden  Shovel,  309. 

Xalisco,  48. 
Ximena,  170. 

Yampa  River,  42. 
Yucatan,  27. 

Yucca,  143,  299,  303,  306,  329. 
Yucca  Strings,  299. 
Yuma,  272. 

Zuni,  45,  58,  60.  119,  150,  162,  168,  169. 
190,  21  r,  222,  233,  246,  249,  292, 


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